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MANAGEX, series III ManageX III is designed specifically for small service-oriented firms. It will track time worked on professional matters and calculate the amount owed by each client. It will also keep up with receipts and disbursements, maintain your bank accounts, and prepare bills to your clients. Though ManageX III is already a very robust program, Integra plans to offer registered users such enhancements as: research support, additional reports (balance sheet, employee productivity, etc.), mail-merge, and more. Individual users are under no obligation to pay Integra Computing for using ManageX III. Nevertheless, please consider becoming a REGISTERED USER by sending a contribution as a signal of your support for Integra's ongoing efforts to enhance ManageX and to provide quality software to the public. Thousands of man-hours have been spent developing ManageX III, resulting in a product which is superior to similar software costing $1000 and more. Con- sidering what you'll save by using the program in the coming years, a contri- bution amounting to a just a few hours of your professional time, say $100-$200, would be most encouraging. If you enclose at least $125 with your user regis- tration, Integra will return your generosity by mailing you the MOST RECENT version of ManageX III and information about the enhancements available. DON'T KEEP A GOOD THING TO YOURSELF - Help your friends install ManageX III in their offices, and encourage them to register. - Integra is constantly seeking to improve this product. If you have sugges- tions, don't hesitate to call 404-973-3586 nearly any weekday, 7:30AM - 1:30PM Eastern Time. Please have your registration number at hand when you call. - The offers contained herein, subject to withdrawal without notice, will be honored only to users within the U.S. REGISTRATION FORM TO: INTEGRA COMPUTING Box 72063 Marietta, GA 30007-2063 Please register me as a ManageX user. Name __________________________________________________________ Address __________________________________________________________ City _________________ County ________ State ___ Zip _______ Firm Name __________________________________________________________ # Professionals _____ # Employees ____ Type of Practice ________________ Computer Type __________________________________________________________ I first heard of ManageX from _____________________________________________ Enclosed is _________ contribution + _________ sales tax for my county, if I'm a Georgia resident = _________ TOTAL ENCLOSED Please send me the most recent version of ManageX III. Please also send details on the options available to registered users. I have read and agree to the terms of the License, Disclaimer, and Agreement that are found at the beginning of the ManageX documentation. _______________________________________ SIGNATURE COMMENTS: 1 MANAGEX DOCUMENTATION LICENSE The following text and the ManageX program are copyrighted (C) in 1985, 1986, & 1987 by R.A. Kelly. They are published by Integra Computing. You may use ManageX III, provided that you do not do so in a business employing more than 15 people without the express written consent of R.A. Kelly, and provided that you first accept the terms of the following AGREEMENT. You may distribute ManageX III, as long as this license and the following disclaimer, agreement and instructions accom- pany the program. You may not distribute ManageX III if any of its accompanying files or this documentation has been altered. No fee may be charged for ManageX III, nor may ManageX III be bundled with (or in any way accompany or be used as an incentive to purchase or lease) any other product or service, without the express written consent of R.A. Kelly. All rights not expressly granted in the above paragraph are reserved in R.A. Kelly. ManageX is a trademark of Integra Computing. DISCLAIMER Though ManageX and its predecessors have been under development since 1984, ManageX may contain design and programming flaws. Before using ANY software on a regular basis, try estimating the potential harm that could result from your reliance upon it. Please don't use ManageX unless you are willing to assume the associated risks. MANAGEX AND ITS INSTRUCTIONS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT- ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE). NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE PROVIDED BY INTEGRA, ITS DEALERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AGENTS, OR EMPLOYEES SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OF ANY KIND REGARDING MANAGEX, AND YOU MAY NOT RELY UPON SUCH INFORMATION OR ADVICE. USE OF MANAGEX IS ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. NEITHER INTEGRA NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF MANAGEX SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, AND LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION) ARISING FROM THE USE OF (OR INABILITY TO USE) MANAGEX, EVEN THOUGH INTEGRA MAY BE ADVISED THAT SUCH DAMAGES ARE POSSIBLE. THIS DISCLAIMER APPLIES TO ALL PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE VERSIONS OF MANAGEX, AS WELL AS TO UPGRADES, AUGMENTATIONS, EXTENSIONS, EXTRA MODULES, AND MODIFICATIONS OF THE PROGRAM THAT MAY BE PROVIDED TO YOU. AGREEMENT As used in this documentation, the term "ManageX", if not followed by a series or version designation, means any version or series of ManageX provided to you now or in the future. 2 Your attempt to use ManageX constitutes your acceptance of the terms set forth in the foregoing LICENSE and DISCLAIMER (which are incorporated into this Agreement). Your attempt to use ManageX also constitutes your agreement that if you bring any legal action relating to ManageX, 1) your sole remedy for the damages for which any defendant is found liable (including direct, indirect, incidental and consequential damages) will be the recovery of one hundred dollars from that defendant, and 2) you will pay the defendants' attorneys fees and other legal costs. The terms of this agreement are governed by Georgia law. If any of this Agreement's terms shall be held invalid to any extent, the remainder of this Agreement shall be unaffected by such invalidity. THE ABOVE PARAGRAPHS CONSTITUTE THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND INTEGRA. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION, OR ADVICE FROM ANY SOURCE MAY ALTER THE AGREEMENT AS SET FORTH ABOVE. 3 MANAGEX III INSTRUCTIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 4 SECTION 0 INTRODUCTION 14 SECTION 1 SETTING UP 21 SECTION 2 MAIN MENU 21 SECTION 3 EMPLOYEE MODULE 23 SECTION 4 CASE MODULE 35 SECTION 5 SERVICES/FEES MODULE 41 SECTION 6 DISBURSEMENTS MODULE 45 SECTION 7 ACCOUNTS MODULE 49 SECTION 8 RECEIPTS MODULE 50 SECTION 9 BILLS 57 SECTION 10 ADJUSTMENTS 58 SECTION 11 CODES, AREAS OF BUSINESS, NUMBERING SYSTEM 61 SECTION 12 USING MANAGEX WITH OLD CASES AND ACCOUNTS 62 SECTION 13 MESSAGES 4 SECTION 0. INTRODUCTION Sec.0.A OVERVIEW ManageX is an office management tool designed specifically for small service-oriented firms. It will track time worked on profes- sional matters and calculate the amount owed by each client. It will also keep up with receipts and disbursements, and it will maintain such accounts as you wish, allowing you to carry out simple bookkeep- ing functions. Perhaps most importantly, it will automatically com- pile service, disbursement, and receipt transactions for each client into monthly bills. ManageX represents an entirely new approach to various aspects of bookkeeping. ManageX is far more flexible than other programs which lock you into an electronic version of ancient manual accounting procedures. Prepare to meet a system that does not require monthly "postings" or year-end "close-outs" and that never destroys old data in the interest of consolidation. ManageX is designed as a unique "free entry" system. You may, for instance, open accounts at will, any time you want. If, several months after having established your chart of accounts, you discover that you need to add a new account, you may easily do so. With Mana- geX, you may also correct nearly ANY entry made at ANY time in the past. Assume, for instance, that you wish to modify the service description or charge appearing on a time slip that was entered three or four months ago. While some other office management systems would require the awkward procedure of entering a corrective time slip to offset the faulty one, ManageX allows you to follow your natural inclination: simply calling the erroneous time slip to the screen and editing it. That keeps your files uncluttered and your reports and bills neat. Also unique is ManageX's ability to re-prepare bills. Other programs won't redo a client's bill after transactions for that client have been "posted" or "closed out", since these procedures often involve the subsequent destruction of those transactions' data. Posting and closing out are tedious bookkeeping procedures which are necessary with manual systems, and which have been emulated in many computer accounting programs. ManageX, however, has been designed to capitalize upon the power of the computer. It will automatically update all data as each transaction is entered into the computer. No time-consuming posting or close-out procedures are required, and there is no data destruction; therefore, you may re-prepare bills that may be even several months old. If a client asks you to correct and re- submit a bill, it's no problem with ManageX. ManageX's aged receivables are also more meaningful than other programs'. Other programs might report aging periods of "0-30 days", "31-60 days", etc. These periods are typically figured backward in time, beginning with the latest posting date. If you haven't posted for some time, you will find yourself doing mental gymnastics to 5 calculate how the aging periods relate to the CURRENT date (who real- ly cares about the last posting date?). With ManageX, which does not require posting, the aging periods are reported as "OwedSince FEB", "OwedSince JAN", "OwedSince DEC", etc. Hence, you know at a glance how much of the money CURRENTLY owed you has been owed since the end of each month shown in the receivables report. Sec.0.B WHAT MANAGEX WILL DO ManageX is based upon the proposition that it is usually best to send a statement to each client at some regular interval, preferably every month. Even when nothing is due from the client for work done during that period, a statement should be sent, if for no other reason, to let the him know that you're still thinking of him. With this principle in mind, you may select a regular billing interval of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 months for each client, though, for simplicity's sake, you are urged to use the one-month interval for as many of your clients as you can. ManageX can handle any combination of the following: 15 employees (partners and others); 4000 clients; 4000 accounts; 4000 service/fee entries per month; 4000 disbursements per month; 4000 receipt/adjustment entries per month; and 4000 account transactions per month. The minimum period for which a client may be billed is one cal- endar month. Each bill will include all transactions from the begin- ning of the first month covered by the bill to the end of the last month covered. A bill may be re-prepared for the same calendar month (or months) several times. For example, if it were now January 15, and you wanted to send Mr. Smith's bill for work done so far this month, the bill prepared by ManageX would cover all work done during the entire month of January (the beginning of the first month covered by the bill is January 1, and the end of the last month covered is January 31). However, since no work will have been done after the fifteenth, the bill will effectively be one for only the period from January 1 to January 15. If, in February, you subsequently printed a Smith January bill, the bill prepared would show work done during the entire month, in- cluding 1) a recap of what had already been shown on the previous January bill and 2) what had been done from the 16th to the 31st. You may not request a bill for only the period from January 16 to January 31, since, as mentioned above, the minimum billing period is one calendar month. But don't worry. Mr. Smith will NOT be charged again for the work already reflected in the first bill. The second bill will SHOW that work for a second time (as a recap), but will not CHARGE him a second time for it. Of course, if Mr. Smith had sent any payments since the first bill was mailed, those payments would also be reflected on the second bill. Each bill sent out for any 6 period of time reflects the most current status of the client's ac- count with you for that period. ManageX is unique in that it allows you to prepare bills for the same period many times, not just once. Correcting and resubmitting bills to your clients present no problem to ManageX. Sec.0.C HOW MANAGEX WORKS Sec.0.C.1 ManageX Program Files ManageX III consists of the following program files, all dated 5-15-86: MX.BAT MANAGEX.COM MANAGEX1.CHN & MANAGEX1.000 MANAGEX2.CHN & MANAGEX2.000 EDIT.COM various supporting `.DAT', `.LTR' and `.HLP' files. ManageX also creates and maintains data files with `.LBF' and `.LBI' extensions. The "MX.BAT", "MANAGEX___", and "EDIT.COM" files are the only ones actually needed to start using ManageX; the others are sup- porting files provided by Integra for on-screen help or for use as ex- amples of text files that you will want to create or modify, yourself. Sec.0.C.2 Case Names, Case Numbers, & Master Record Numbers ManageX considers each matter handled by the firm to be a case. This nomenclature, ideal for attorneys and doctors, is also suitable for other professionals willing to adapt. Each case will be assigned a Case Name, a Case Number and a "MasterRcrd" Number. The Case Name is simply a convenient name by which you can recognize the case, such as "Smith Project" or "State v. Williams". The Case Number is used by the program to locate the case record in the computer's data files. It may be in the same format as that used by your firm to manually file the paperwork pertaining to that case. The MasterRcrd Number is used to link up to 500 subordinate case records to their master record. Each case is subordinate to its master. If a case is indepen- dent (that is, not subordinate to another), then it is its OWN mas- ter, and its Case Number and MasterRcrd Number will be the same. If, however, it is subordinate to another, then the other's Case Number will be the subordinate's MasterRcrd Number. For example, if case number 2 were subordinate to case number 1, then case 2's MasterRcrd Number would be "1" (case 1, being its own master, would also be assigned MasterRcrd Number 1). When would you want to subordinate one case to another? Assume, that you and Mr. Smith had a retainer agreement whereby he would pay you $150 per month for any services he needed from you at any time. You might set up a case record with the Case Name, "Smith Retainer" and the Case Number, "SMITJO1". If Mr. Smith subsequently asked you 7 to help him with a building contract, you might do one of two things. One would be to charge the time you spend working on the contract to the "Smith Retainer" (SMITJO1) case. The other would be to establish a separate case record, perhaps named "Smith Contract" and possibly numbered "SMITJO2". If you want- ed to make sure that both Mr. Smith's cases were linked for easy subsequent identification, you would assign to the new SMITJO2 case the MasterRcrd Number, "SMITJO1". A graphic representation of this master-subordinate relationship follows: MASTER SUBORDINATES Case #: SmitJo1 Case Name: Smith Retainer Case #: SmitJo1 MasterRcrd #: SmitJo1 Case Name: Smith Retainer MasterRcrd #: SmitJo1 Case #: SmitJo2 Case Name: Smith Contract MasterRcrd #: SmitJo1 As can be seen, the SMITJO1 case is its own master, and it also acts as a master for the SMITJO2 case. In the future, whenever you want to look through ALL of Mr. Smith's cases, it will be easy, because they all have the same MasterRcrd Number. MasterRcrd Numbers LINK several cases together for future reference. Now, on to a related matter. Unlike some other programs, ManageX does not require you to set up a separate "client record" before you open any case (or "matter") records for the client. Each ManageX case record contains both matter AND client information. Hence, if you have a client for whom you do not expect to be handling more than one matter, you need open only ONE record (a case record) for him, rather than TWO (a client record and a matter record). If, subsequent to your having opened that single record for him, the client comes to you with more work, you may either: 1) do that addi- tional work under the same case already opened, or 2) set up another case for him. If you do the latter, you may, though you do not HAVE to, link the two cases by making the first record the second's Mas- terRcrd. Though ManageX does not REQUIRE you to do so, you may set up something comparable to a separate "client record" for each client before opening actual cases for him. To do so, you would actually set up a "case" record for the client and use it as a MasterRcrd for the several matters that you handle for him. After all, a "client record" does nothing more than link several cases together under one client, and a ManageX MasterRcrd can serve the same function. You would tell ManageX that this record is intended to serve as a simple client record by beginning its "case" name with an asterisk. An example of a "client" record follows: 8 MASTER SUBORDINATES Case #: SmitJo1 Case Name: Smith Retainer Case #: SmitJo MasterRcrd #: SmitJo Case Name: *John Smith Cases MasterRcrd #: SmitJo Case #: SmitJo2 Case Name: Smith Contract MasterRcrd #: SmitJo In the above example, the SMITJO record is a "client" record, which contains only the client's name, address, salutation, billing inter- val, responsible employee and a "case" name beginning with an aster- isk (any other information filled in will be disregarded by ManageX, since this is only a "client", not a real "case", record). Sec.0.C.3 Designating Employees When you first run the program, the first file you should set up is the employee file (you will be told how to do this in a while). ManageX needs to learn who all the owners and other employees are if it is to know the rates at which services are to be charged to clients. Included in the information filled in for each employee is a "Program Employee Code #". This is a unique number between 1 and 15 assigned to each firm employee. The program uses this number at various times to locate charge rates and employee initials. Whenever a service, disbursement, or other record is entered into the data base, one of the items you will be asked is the employee code of the individual who performed the service, made the disbursement, etc. In this way, each transaction in the data base will be traceable to a specific employee. Sec.0.D A FEW DEFINITIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS Sec.0.D.1 Keyboard Entries Using ManageX requires you to make data entries at your compu- ter keyboard. When you are asked to `enter' something, you should type in the response at the keyboard and then finish your entry by pressing RET (the return key). `Enter', therefore, implies that you will complete your entry with a RET. If you are asked merely to `press' a key, you should not press RET after you have pressed the appropriate key. `Press' means that you need make only one key- stroke; 'enter' implies that more that one keystroke is permissible, since all entries must end with RET. Sec.0.D.2 Control characters On-screen instructions will frequently instruct you to press control characters. A control character is represented graphically as a letter preceded by an up caret (eg: ^A or ^H). If you are instructed to press a control character, you must hold the Ctrl key down, while simultaneously pressing the appropriate letter key. For example, to press ^O, hold down the Ctrl key and tap the "O" (or "o") key. Do not actually press the up carrot key; the up carrot is used merely as a graphic representation of the control key. 9 Sec.0.D.3 The RET key RET (the return key) serves two functions in ManageX. First, it is the key used to end all entries. And second, if, in response to a screen prompt, you press it before you press any other keys, it acts to tell the program that you wish to ignore the prompt and retain the current response, if any. If, for instance, ManageX asked you a name, you could just press RET, and the program would infer that you wished to ignore the question. Depending upon the circumstances, ManageX would then move on to the next question in a series, or it would abort the procedure in which the question occurred. ESC (the Escape key) will usually serve to tell ManageX not only to ignore a response, but also to abort the procedure entirely. Sec.0.D.4 Entering Numbers When prices or other monetary figures are entered, never enter a dollar sign, comma or any symbol other than a minus sign. If, for instance, a price were $9,999.95, you would enter only "9999.95", not "$9999.95" or "9,999.95". Numbers may usually be up to eight char- acters in length, including the decimal point's position, if there is one. Entering something other than a number when only a number is called for will result in an entry different from what you intend. Sec.0.D.5 Pausing When you find the computer in the middle of some lengthy proce- dure, such as printing a report, and you want to pause, press the space bar. Doing so will cause the process to stop until you press the space bar again. This use of the space bar will not work in all of the program's operational modes, but it will in most. Pressing the space bar will often take a few seconds to have an effect, so be patient. Sec.0.D.6 Aborting If, instead of wishing that the computer pause in the middle of a procedure, you prefer to abort that procedure altogether, press ESC (the Escape key). As with the space bar, this key may not work in all parts of the program, and it may take a few seconds to work. Sec.0.D.7 Printer Toggling Whenever you are about to have a report printed on the screen, and you would prefer that it be printed on your printer, press ^P before the report preparation begins. ^P is the printing toggle, and it turns the flow of data to the printer on and off. Sec.0.D.8 Message Line The last line on the display screen will nearly always have a message for you. The message will often contain either instructions or an error message. If you are ever unclear about what you are supposed to do next, look at the message line, which will be printed 10 in reverse video. If the intent of the message is not clear, you might find an explanation of it in the MESSAGES section of these instructions. Sec.0.D.9 Accounts Certain accounts are opened and maintained automatically by ManageX. These are each case's balance due and aged receivable accounts. In order to see one of these accounts' status, you need simply (E)dit/Examine the appropriate case's record, as explained in the CASE module section. Most accounts, however, will NOT be automatically opened by the program. You will have open them, yourself, in the ACCOUNTS module. These discretionary accounts may include case retainer and trust accounts, as well as escrow, checking, and ANY other type of account you can think of. ManageX will track up to 4000 accounts, each of which will have two sub-accounts (called "acct A" and "acct B"). Each sub-account is really a full account, itself, which means that you have a total of 8000 accounts at your disposal. The reason that each account has two sub-accounts is that many professionals like to track two different accounts under one account number. For instance, you might wish to assign both a retainer and a general trust account to the case you are handling for Mr. Smith. You could establish an account whose "number" is "SMITJO1" (as with case numbers, account "numbers" may consist of either numbers or letters). Under that account you could deposit money into "acct A" as the retainer and into "Acct B" as the trust. Though ManageX would keep each body of money (acct A and acct B) separate, you would be able to access BOTH subaccounts by asking to manipulate the SMITJO1 ac- count. It is important to note that, although each account will have two subaccounts, you need not use them both. Indeed, you might decide, for simplicity's sake, to use only acct A for ALL your ac- counts, except those for which you wish to follow both a retainer and a trust account for the same client (as in the example above). Hence, for most accounts, you might completely ignore the fact that acct B even exists, and deal strictly with acct A. Finally, it should be noted that one other account automatically maintained is a general receivables account. This account is des- criptively named "Receivables" and has the account number, "RECEIV" (account numbers need not actually be strictly numbers). Whenever bills are prepared, the balance maintained under subaccount A of RECEIV is updated (subaccount B is not used in the RECEIV account). Its balance is also adjusted whenever a write-off or adjustment is made for a client's bill or whenever you enter a client payment in the RECEIPTS module. Note, however, that the RECEIV account is un- affected by service and disbursement entries until they are actually included in bills, because those transactions do not actually become 11 "receivable" until bills are sent. NOTE: In all its automatic dealings with both the RECEIV account and each individual case's aged receivables, ManageX follows the theory that A SUM IS NOT RECEIVABLE FROM A PER- SON UNTIL THAT PERSON HAS ACTUALLY BEEN NOTIFIED OF HIS DEBT in the form of a bill. If you believe that receivables should be affected IMMEDIATELY whenever a service is performed (rather than only after the bill is sent), you may open a receivables account of your own, but it must not be given the number "RECEIV" (since the account automatically maintained by ManageX already has that account number). Then, you'll have two receivables accounts: yours, and the one that ManageX auto- matically maintains (which you may choose to ignore). Sec.0.D.10 EDIT.COM There are a few files which will need to be created or modified by ManageX's text editor, EDIT.COM, before you can realize the full potential of the program. For instance, you will certainly want to customize the "M-RETADD.LTR" file, so that your correct return address will be reflected on bills prepared by ManageX. You will have to set up these files only once, unless you wish to subsequently modify them. You may access EDIT.COM from ManageX's MAIN MENU by pressing ^E (for "Edit"). You may also access it directly from the DOS prompt by entering "EDIT". Hence,you don't even have to be in the ManageX program to use EDIT.COM. Sec.0.D.11 Deciding which module to use Use of ManageX requires your understanding its basic modular organization. Each choice in the MAIN MENU corresponds to a differ- ent module. There is a SERVICE/FEE module, a BILLING module, a DIS- BURSEMENTS module, an ACCOUNTS module, and so on. Whenever you want to do ANYTHING in this program, you should go to the module whose subject matter most probably encompasses what you want to do. For instance, to run a report showing all your services performed during any period, you would go to the SERVICES/FEES module, not to the BILLING module or CASES module. There may be times when your first guess as to the proper module is incorrect. In that case, take a second guess, and you'll be right. It is important that you clearly distinguish among the concepts of a disbursement, a receipt, and a service/fee. If you do not un- derstand the differences among them, you will make entries into the wrong modules. A service is an amount of WORK performed for a client. A fee is an amount charged to the client for services performed. Both ser- vices and fees are entered in ManageX's SERVICE/FEE module. 12 A disbursement is an amount ADVANCED or PAID BY YOU for some- thing. It must be entered in the DISBURSEMENTS module. If, for instance, you have paid court costs of $55, this expenditure is a disbursement. Do not enter it on a time slip in the SERVICE/FEE module. A receipt is a sum of money PAID TO YOU. It is not a disburse- ment (which is a sum paid BY you). ManageX considers receipts to be income, not expenses. Do not enter into the RECEIPTS module any items purchased by you, since these purchases are properly entered into the DISBURSEMENTS module. Receipts are often a source of confusion. Remember that they are money PAID TO YOU, that is, money that you intend to put into YOUR coffers. Money given to you in trust is NOT a receipt. If a client gives you $100 and you intend to put it into trust for him, DO NOT enter it as a receipt. That $100 should be registered with Mana- geX in the ACCOUNTS module, where you can follow trusts, escrows, retainers, and other types of accounts. That $100 is not meant to be a present payment to you for past or future services; rather, it is meant to be placed into trust for the client (in the ACCOUNTS mod- ule). At some future time, you might withdraw part or all of it from the trust account as a payment to you, but, until that time, it is not a RECEIPT; it is merely money given to you in trust. Remember, money given to you is a RECEIPT only if it is going directly into YOUR pocket. Likewise, a disbursement is money paid by YOU, from YOUR FIRM's accounts, not from a trust account. DO NOT enter as a disbursement any payment from a trust account. Remember, it is not a disbursement unless it comes from your firm's own funds. Money taken out of a trust account is NOT a disbursement, as ManageX understands the term -- it is simply a withdrawal of money from an account, to be handled in the ACCOUNTS module, not the DISBURSEMENTS module. Do not read further until you understand the discussion, so far. Sometimes, the item you wish to enter does not seem to fit well into the main categories of services/fees, disbursements, and re- ceipts. For instance, an established client's current (at the time you first enter his data into ManageX's files) balance is not strict- ly a "fee", since it does not apply to a specific single event or transaction. Nevertheless, it must be entered somewhere. The AD- JUSTMENTS module exists for the purpose of adjusting client bills for things that do not seem to fit well into the categories discussed above. If, for instance, you wished to decrease the amount due re- flected on a bill, you would probably wish to register an adjustment in the form of a write-off. Sec.0.D.12 Omitting Records Records may be physically omitted from any of the Employee, Case, and Accounts files when such records are no longer needed. 13 The process involves two steps: first, "tagging" a record for omis- sion in the Edit mode by pressing ^O; and second, actually omitting all the records in the file which have been tagged. The procedure for doing this is explained in the EMPLOYEE MODULE discussion. Though a record may not be physically omitted from the Ser- vices/Fees, Disbursements, or Receipts/Adjustments file, ^O (pressed while the record is being edited) will cancel its EFFECTS, just the same. In these files, ^O does not "tag" a file for future omission; it simply deletes all the data on the affected record, thereby can- celling its effect. The record will still physically exist after it is "omitted", but it will be empty and will have no effect. Sec.0.D.13 Obtaining Reports In order to obtain a report, you will have to go to the appro- priate module and request a (H)unt through that module's records (Hunting will be explained in later sections). The records found in the hunts may be displayed on screen or on your printer (^P toggles the printer, remember?). Which module contains the report you want? Just ask yourself what the report concerns. If it concerns services performed, fees charged or hours worked, then you should go to the SERVICE/FEE mod- ule. If it concerns money received, go to the RECEIPTS module. For a report on money paid out by the firm, the DISBURSEMENTS module is appropriate. The ACCOUNTS module will give you a report about ac- counts and their balances, while the ADJUSTMENTS module will report on write-offs and other adjustments. If you are looking for general information about cases, such as a case's balance, try the CASE module (which contains data for each case that would typically be kept on the "cover sheet" for that case's file folder). Sec.0.D.14 Tricking ManageX When ManageX asks for some information, NEVER, NEVER try to manipulate it by giving false data. Doing so will almost certainly cause errors resulting from ManageX's reliance upon your input. Never, for instance, succumb to the temptation to tell ManageX that today is any date other than today's real date. There is no way you can anticipate all that ManageX will do with the false data you may give it. 14 SECTION 1. SETTING UP Sec.1.A DISK PREPARATION The first thing you must do to get ManageX into operation is to make sure that all its files are in the hard disk's MANAGEX sub- directory. Sec.1.B STARTING MANAGEX & CUSTOMIZING THE PROGRAM Now that all the ManageX files are located in the MANAGEX subdirectory, you should move to that subdirectory to use the program. To start the program, enter "MX" (for "ManageX") at the keyboard. NOTE: If you have difficulty getting ManageX to start, it is because you were given an incomplete set of program files or because your files have already been used by someone else. You can be assured of proper installation ONLY if your program files match those listed in Section 0.C.1 of these instructions and only if they are all dated 5-15-86. Al- ways maintain copies of the ORIGINAL, UNCHANGED files, for use as backups, as well as for giving to your friends. NOTE: You must be sure that you are in the hard disk MANAGEX subdirectory. If you wish to access ManageX from a batch file located in another subdirectory, you must put MX.BAT into that other subdirectory and erase it from the MANAGEX subdirectory. Use EDIT.COM to modify the subdirectory references at the top and bottom of the MX.BAT file. Do not change MX.BAT's name, and make sure that the subdirectory that contains it is in the DOS path. NEVER rename MX.BAT (ManageX must always be entered from a batch file called "MX.BAT"), and make no modifications other than to change its references to subdirectories at the top and bottom of the file. Sec.1.B.1 Listing the Parameters If this is your first use of the program, the first screen that appears will be one which contains a series of prompts whose purpose is to find out how your computer system is configured and how you want ManageX to work for you. If you make a mistake on one of these entries, you will be able to correct it only AFTER you have completed all the ones that follow it. NOTE: A brief description of most items may be obtained by pressing Alt-F1 when the CUSTOMIZING screen is being displayed. Sec.1.B.1.a "HARD disk used for program" Here, you should enter the letter designator of the hard drive which contains the ManageX subdirectory (usually C or D). 15 Sec.1.B.1.b "Local tax on fees and services" If you live in a state that levies a tax on your fees for ser- vices performed, enter the tax rate here; otherwise press RET to keep the rate zero. The rate should be entered as a percentage (eg: 2.5% should be entered as "2.5", not ".025"). The figure you enter will be used to calculate the tax on ser- vices reflected on each bill prepared. Sec.1.B.1.c "Interest-free interval" This figure is the interval after the last bill sent to each client during which you will not charge interest. If you do not intend do charge interest at all, just press RET to ignore the prompt. As you set up each case's record, you will have the opportunity to enter a monthly rate at which interest will be charged the client (if no interest is to be charged, you may just enter "0" at that time). When that case's monthly bills are prepared, interest will be charged at that rate for all sums from the previous bill which have still not been paid. HOWEVER, no interest will be charged unless the number of days designated here have elapsed between the invoice date of the previous bill and the invoice date of the new bill being prepared. Let us say, for example, that you enter 30 interest-free days here. Let us also presume that the client's balance due on the last bill is $100 and that he has paid only $50 since that bill was sent. You are now preparing the next month's bill. If only 30 days have elapsed between the last bill's invoice date and this one's, no int- erest will be charged on the $50 still owed from last month. If, however, at least 31 days have elapsed, the interest will be charged on the basis of the following calculation: $ 50.00 (still owed) x interest rate for that case x number of months between the last bill's and this new one's statement dates. ------------ = interest Sec.1.B.1.d "Do you want after-batch printouts?" You will make your transaction data entries in "batches". For instance, after you fill in one time slip, you will be presented with the next blank one, then the next, and so, on. At the end of this "batch" of several entries, you may want a printout of all that you have just entered, so that you will have a permanent printed record. If you would like to have this printout option presented to you at the end of each batch, answer "Y" to the above question. Sec.1.B.1.e "Lines printed per page on printer" Most printers are preset for 66 rows, unless you change their 16 default settings. ManageX also assumes a default value of 66, unless you change that assumption here. If you are using standard letter- sized paper, and if your printer uses a spacing of 6 lines to the inch, you do not need to change this value. Sec.1.B.1.f "Lines from paper top to letterhead bottom" If you will not be using letterhead paper, skip this item. If, however, ManageX will be printing statements onto private letterhead paper, it must know how far down the page to begin printing. Measure the distance from the top of the page to the bottom of the letterhead as accurately as possible. Then enter the number of lines (at 6 lines to the inch) that can be printed in that space. For instance, if the distance were 2.2 inches, you would enter "13" (for "13 lines"). Sec.1.B.1.g "Printer Code for Bills and Letters You may need to refer to your printer's manual for this data, which is NOT essential for using ManageX. Therefore, if you're new to computing, you may want to skip this item for now (by pressing RET), and come back at some later date (after you've had more exper- ience with your computer and printer). You will almost certainly want bills and letters printed on your printer to be centered. However, some printers are incapable of centering formfeed paper on the platen. If you have one of these printers, it must be sent a special code to make it begin printing each line further to the right than usual. ManageX will send this code if you will tell it here exactly what code your specific printer expects for a Left Margin change. You might also change fonts (to, perhaps, Elite) by sending a code. Your printer's manual contains the proper code instructions. Make sure that the code you supply is a DECIMAL code, not a HEXADEC- IMAL code. Fifteen spaces allows you to enter five 3-digit numbers in sequence. Make sure that each number constituting the code is represented as a 3-digit decimal (eg: 52 should be entered as "052", and 1 should be entered as "001"). The code you enter need not actually fill fifteen spaces if fewer are needed. Assume, for instance, that you have an Epson printer and that you need to move the margin to the right 4 spaces. To do so, you must enter nine digits: "027108052". The "027" translates to the ESC key; "108" translates to "l"; and "052" means a 4-space mar- gin ("053" would be a 5-space margin). Sec.1.B.1.h "Indent used for client addresses on bills" ManageX will normally print a bill's client address at the left margin (column 0). If your paper is centered in the printer when bills are prepared, this positioning should allow the address to show 17 through the window in a standard envelope. If, however, you wish to move the address to the right, you may designate another column. It is recommended that you leave this figure zero until you attempt to prepare bills and determine that you need to change it. To change this indent (or any of these other setup items) at a later date, you need simply select the (^C)ustomize option from the MAIN MENU. Sec.1.B.1.b "Lines printed per page on printer" ManageX also assumes a default value of 66, unless you change that assumption here. If you are using standard letter-size paper, and if your printer uses a spacing of 6 lines to the inch, you do not need to change this value. Sec.1.B.1.i "1st Account Adjusted for Services" and Sec.1.B.1.j "2nd Account Adjusted for Services" Whenever you enter a service or fee, the client's balance owed is automatically adjusted by ManageX. However, if you want ManageX to also keep your bank accounts up to date, you may have two accounts (perhaps a "general equity" account and a "receivables" account) updated at this same time. You may, of course, go the ACCOUNTS module to take care of this updating, but most would prefer that ManageX handle it automatically at the same time that the service or fee is being entered. If you would like ManageX to automatically adjust two accounts for each service/fee entry, you must enter their account numbers (not account names) and subaccount designations ("-A" or "-B"). BOTH items (1st Account and 2nd Account) must be filled in for automatic account updating to occur. If you don't care about ManageX's tracking your accounts, you may skip these items by pressing RET. Even if you DO want ManageX to handle your bookkeeping, you might leave these items blank if you are just beginning to use the program; then, after you have set up your accounts, you may come back to this series of questions by pres- sing ^C (for `Customize this program') when the MAIN MENU is being displayed. The 1st account whose number you enter here should be a `Debit' type of account that would appear in the Assets side of a balance sheet. The 2nd should be a `Credit' account. Note that ManageX will ADD the value of the service/fee entered to the first (Debit-type) account. The amount will also be added to the 2d account if that account is, in fact, a credit account; if it is a debit account, the service/fee amount will be subtracted. NOTE: If either of these items already has an account number entered, and you would prefer NOT to have an entry, enter a zero. The zero will be converted to a blank entry. 18 Sec.1.B.1.k "Account adjusted for Dsbr/Receipts" Whenever you enter a receipt or disbursement, the client's balance owed is automatically adjusted by ManageX. However, you may also want to put the money into (or withdraw it from) one of your accounts (such as the checking account). You could, of course, go the ACCOUNTS module to take care of this matter, but most would prefer that ManageX handle it automatically at the time the receipt or disbursement is being entered. If you would like ManageX to automatically adjust an account for each receipt or disbursement entry, you must enter its account number (not account name) and subaccount designation ("-A" or "-B"). NOTE: If you want to keep your books "balanced", you will also want a second account to be adjusted automatically. The account you use for the "balancing" transaction will depend upon the CATEGORY of income or expense involved in the receipt or disbursement being entered. The income/expense categories (and the accounts which you may want automatically adjusted) will be entered into a file called M-LBCODE.DAT. Instructions for establishing this file are found in the CODES section of this documentation. You should make an entry here only if you will ALWAYS want the SAME ACCOUNT (such as your checking account) credited/debited for ALL receipts/disbursements. If, from time to time, you may want any of SEVERAL accounts adjusted when you enter a disbursement or receipt, leave this item blank. See note at bottom of previous section. Sec.1.B.1.l "Do you want disbursement/receipt acct adjustment?" NOTE: This item will appear only if you have not filled in anything for the previous item. Whenever you make a disbursement or receipt entry, ManageX affords you the ability to automatically withdraw or deposit money from or to a bank account. Before each batch of receipts and dis- bursements is made, ManageX will prompt you to enter the number of the account which is to be debited or credited. If you will be using ManageX for tracking your bank accounts, this is a handy feature which will save you some time by updating your accounts automatically (the alternative being your going to the ACCOUNTS module to make the appropriate account transaction entries separately). If you will not be using ManageX to follow bank accounts, you may find that the account-adjustment prompts appearing in the DIS- BURSEMENT and RECEIPT modules are an annoyance. If you don't want the prompts to appear, enter `N' here; otherwise, enter `Y'. If you aren't sure, just press RET, and come back to this series of ques- tions at a later date to change the entry, if needed. 19 Sec.1.B.1.m "Computer speed factor" ManageX needs to know how long to display messages on your screen. The factor should be 2 (6 for AT machines), at least until you have had experience with the program. If, later, you find that messages disappear from the screen too quickly, you may come back to this item and increase the number. Sec.1.B.1.n "Text color #" This prompt, which appear only if you have a color video board, asks which colors you want most characters displayed on the screen to be. You are expected to enter a number between 0 and 15. These numbers correspond to the following colors: 0:Black 8:Dark Gray 1:Blue 9:Light Blue 2:Green 10:Light Green 3:Cyan 11:Light Cyan 4:Red 12:Light Red 5:Magenta 13:Light Magenta 6:Brown 14:Yellow 7:Light Gray 15:White Sec.1.B.1.o "Background color #" See the discussion immediately above. Sec.1.B.2 Wrapping up the Installation You will next be asked whether you need to change any of the information you have just entered. If you press "Y", you will be taken back to the first prompt to start over again. If you press "N", you will be asked to confirm today's date. If the date dis- played is correct, just press RET (RET causes prompts to be ignored, remember?). If the date is wrong, you should enter today's date. NOTE: ManageX will not accept a date in any month earlier than the month in which fell the last date that you used the program; nor will it accept a date later than your last use date, plus 28 days. The reason for this is that the program regularly updates information. If you entered a date that were too early or too late, the updating performed would be faulty. Therefore, be sure of the date you enter when you begin using the program each day, and NEVER try to trick ManageX with an erroneous date. The date must be entered in one of three formats. As an example of each format's use, if today were December 15, 1987, you could enter it as "15 DEC 87", "12/15/87", or "121587". Here it should be noted that there are many places in the program where you will be asked to enter a "Mon Yr". When you come to such a place, simply type the first three characters of the month, then type a space, and finally enter the last two digits of the year. For example, December 1987's "Mon Yr" is "Dec 87". 20 Sec.1.C CHECKING THE DATA FILES After you have entered the date, ManageX will double-check it and then begin confirming the existence of data files. If this is your first use of ManageX, no data files will exist yet, so you will be asked whether you want to create them. The specific prompt ap- pearing on the screen will be, "[month] files do not exist -- create them?" Answer Yes by pressing "Y", unless, for some reason you do NOT want to create new files for the month. Next, a message will appear, asking, "Do you want to erase un- needed monthly data files?". This message will appear during each month's FIRST USE of ManageX. Keeping some old files may be useful for referencing data from previous months, but how many old files you preserve depends upon how much hard disk space you are willing to de- vote to ManageX, and how much you need for other uses. If this is your first use of ManageX, there are no old files, and you may, therefore, answer the question by pressing the "N" key (for "No, I do not want to..."). But before you do, please read on, so that you will gain an understanding of what to do when you reach this point in the coming months. Sec.1.C.1 Setting up files for a new month Some files used by ManageX keep track of perpetual information which must be consistent from month to month. These perpetual files will be automatically updated by ManageX at the appropriate times. They all have names which begin with "M-". Other files, however, are month-specific. These specialized files which will be created "from scratch" each month include those for services, disbursements, ac- counts and receipts. They all have names beginning with the name of the month to which they apply. If you want to clear up some hard disk space by erasing old monthly files, and if you have not already taken care of that matter, press "Y" (for "Yes, I do want to..."). Make sure, however, that you have floppy archive copies of the files about to be erased. You never know when you may need to retrieve some old data which has been deleted from the hard disk. If you have not made the archives AND prepared ALL bills which will draw upon data compiled during the months you are considering deleting, you should NOT delete those months' files. If you answer "Y", ManageX will ask for the month whose files are to be erased. After confirming that bills and archives have been pre- pared for that month, ManageX will erase the old data files for you. Then, files for the current month will be created, and you will be taken to the MAIN MENU. 21 SECTION 2. MAIN MENU The MAIN MENU reflects the structure of the program. Look at it closely. The message at the bottom requests that you press one of the letters in parentheses. If you wish to go to the (C)ase record module, simply press "C". Once there, you will be presented with a similar CASE MENU. The menu in each module is similar to those in all the others. SECTION 3. EMPLOYEE MODULE This module keeps track of the firm's employees, which include partners, secretaries, and others. Unlike most of the other mod- ules, which can be entered directly from most any other module's menu, you can gain access to this one from only the MAIN MENU. If the MAIN MENU is being shown, press "E" to go to the EMPLOYEE module. Don't press RET after you press "E", because doing so will bring you right back to the MAIN MENU. Press "E" alone. Sec.3.A (M)AKE A NEW EMPLOYEE RECORD Assuming that the EMPLOYEE MENU is being displayed, press "M" to make an employee record. You will first be asked the employee's last and first names. Then you will be taken into the Edit mode (that's right, the Edit mode) to edit what is essentially a blank record. Fill in the address, phone, and other items. The Program Employee Code # may be any number from 1 to 15. This code will be used by the program to identify which employees do work for your clients. Most of the other items to be filled in are fairly obvious, but Hourly Client Charges should be discussed. This item is a listing of six hourly rates, each corresponding to one of six rate levels at which your firm might charge clients. Your firm may have clients whom it wishes to charge at rates higher or lower than the rates charged to other clients. Your agreement with a client might provide that he will be charged at the firm's rate level 3. Then, no matter which employee does work for that client, that employee's rate 3 will be the rate at which the work will be charged the client. Each em- ployee's rates may be different from the other employees'. Each employee's rate level 1 should be his STANDARD rate. It is this rate which ManageX will use as a default for such things as estimating the amount which a client WOULD owe for all the work your firm does for him, if his were not a fixed fee, contingent or retain- er case. You may change Salary Payment Frequency and Income Tax Status by pressing the + key. Each Deduction line allows a description of the deduction (eg: "Savings Bond" or "Health Insurance") and the amount deducted from each paycheck for that item. 22 Press F6 or ESC at any time to store the record. Sec.3.B (E)DIT/EXAMINE AN EMPLOYEE RECORD The (E)dit mode in the EMPLOYEE module (and in others, as well) is used to alter information contained in a record. Since you need not actually make alterations when the record is displayed, this mode is also very useful as a means of simply displaying an entire record on the screen for your examination. You may use the (E)dit mode whenever you wish to merely examine a record. Once a record has been found, you will see a display identical to the one with which you worked in the (M)ake mode. You work with it in the same manner as you did in that mode. There is only one difference: in the (E)dit mode, you can cause the record to be tagged for omission by pressing ^O (you may also "untag" a record already tagged for omission by pressing ^O). The record will not, however, actually be omitted (erased from the file) unless you select the (^O)mit option in the EMPLOYEE MENU, as described below. To get back to the EMPLOYEE MENU, press F6 or ESC. Sec.3.C (^O)MIT ALL RECORDS TAGGED FOR OMISSION Go ahead and press ^O now, even though you may not have marked any records for omission in the Edit mode. You will at least see how the mode operates. During the omission process, ManageX will look at each record in the file to see whether it is tagged for omission. If so, it will be omitted; if not, it will be saved. There will be a some of disk drive activity, the length of which depends upon the length of the file from which omissions are being made. 23 SECTION 4. CASE MODULE In the CASE module, you will manipulate case/client records. You should view a case/client record as merely a descriptive cover sheet that would go into each case's file folder. This record (or sheet) can be inspected (with the (E)dit/Examine mode described below) at any time to get a quick overview of the case's current status in such areas as its balance due and its aged receiv- ables. Remember that, anytime you want information on balances due or receivables, you should come to the CASE module. Sec.4.A (M)AKE A NEW RECORD If you press "M", you will be asked to give ManageX a Case Num- ber for the new case. After you enter it, you will be taken into the Edit mode, where you can fill in other information pertaining to that case. NOTE: Though you may use ANY case numbering scheme you like, you are strongly encouraged to use one in which the case name consists of the first 4 or 5 letters of the client's last name and the first 2 or 3 letters of his fist name (eg: John Smith's first case would be "SMITJO1". Doing so will make case numbers easier to remember and will also make certain searches for case information proceed more a little more quickly than if you were to use another scheme. The Edit mode's screen displays some information which you can- not change, such as the case's balance. Since the balance is auto- matically updated as each service/fee, disbursement, and receipt entry is made, you may not alter it here. If, for some reason, you want to change this case's total amount due your firm, you must sel- ect the "(W)rite-off or other Adjustment of Billing amount" option in the MAIN MENU. The reason that you are not allowed to make this change directly here is that, if you did so, there would be no per- manent record of the change and its reason. Forcing you to make a Write-off/Adjustment will result in the filing of such a record. Nor may you change the receivables displayed on the screen or the "CrntDue" item, which represents the amount still due on the last bill that you sent the client, minus any payments that have been received since then. "CrntDue" may well differ from the "Balance" figure, which includes not just the amount due on the last bill, but also ALL the transactions since then (including services/fees, disbursements, receipts, and write-offs/adjustments). Sec.4.A.1 MasterRcrd Number You will note that this number has already been assigned. It is always initially presumed that a case's master is that case, itself. If you wish to change it, just use the cursor control and delete keys to do so. Once the new masterRcrd number has been 24 entered, ManageX will search for that case to confirm its existence. If it cannot find the masterRcrd, it will tell you so. If it does find the masterRcrd, certain common information will be transferred from that case to the new one you are now creating. A subordinate case MUST NOT be entered into the file before the master to which it refers. A masterRcrd must always have been en- tered into the case file BEFORE its subordinates. The reason many professionals prefer to put all matters under a single "master" case is that they want the bills sent to their clients to be completely consolidated. If you have a master with several subordinates, the bill sent to your client will actually consist of a separate bill for each subordinate case and a summary sheet containing the total amount due for all the cases. You may believe that some of your clients will be confused by receiving multiple bills, especially if, as far as they're concerned, all the matters handled by one firm should appear on one consolidated bill, rather than separate bills arriving in the same envelope. Before you begin any cases for a client, you should consider his nature and decide whether you may ultimately need to set up sev- eral subordinates under one master, or whether all the work you do for him is appropriate for one case's record. If you are unsure how to proceed, just set up ONE case for him now. Then, if, in the fu- ture, you decide that you need to open a case subordinate to the one you originally opened for him, you may do so simply by designating the original case as the new case's master. However, you may not subsequently open a new case and call it the original's master, since, as mentioned above, master records must be opened with ManageX BEFORE any of their subordinates. Sec.4.A.2 Area of Business Next you will come to the "Area of Business". This must be a number between 1 and 999 corresponding to the business category which most closely describes this particular case's subject matter. You are free to define your category numbers, using any scheme that you wish. ManageX uses these numbers during its hunt routine to search for all cases dealing with similar subjects (if you select the "Area of Business" Hunt Gates in the Hunt mode). By running such a hunt, you can find, among other things, which areas of business bring in the most money and which areas your firm seems to be concentrating upon. If you do not know the area of business or its number, and if you would like some help, press the inquiry key, F1. You will be shown the contents of the M-LBAREA.DAT file, which contains a listing of all the business categories and their corresponding numbers. When you find the area that fits this case, enter its number and procede to the next item. See the CODES, AREAS OF BUSINESS, NUMBERING SYSTEM section for instructions on how you may change M-LBAREA.DAT's contents. 25 Sec.4.A.3 Charging Disbursements "Chrg Dsbrs" is the next item. ManageX initially assumes that you will always charge your clients for each disbursement. When YES appears next to the 'Chrg Dsbrs' item, this assumption will be fol- lowed for this case. If you wish to alter this assumption for this case, press "N" (for NO). If 'Chrg Dsbrs' is NO, no disbursements made for this case will be included on the client's bills, unless, at the time each disbursement is actually entered into the computer, the amount entry is completed with ^C (for CHARGE) instead of the usual RET. If 'Chrg Dsbrs' is YES, all disbursements made for this case WILL be included on the client's bills, unless, at the time each disbursement is entered, the amount entry is completed with ^N (for NO charge) instead of the usual RET. Sec.4.A.4 Responsible and Originating Employee The "Responsible Employee" is the code # of the employee who is chiefly responsible for the case. "Orig" is the originating employee. Here, you should enter the code of the employee who brought the case into the firm. Sec.4.A.5 Opening and Closing Dates The date this case is "Opened" is automatically entered by the computer, but you may change it if you need to. When the case is closed, this item is titled, "Closed", and the date shown is that on which the case was closed. See the "Closing and Opening a Case" section, below. Sec.4.A.6 Case Name, Client Name, etc. The "Case Name" is the next item to fill in. Give the case some descriptive name (or 'style') and enter it here. Make sure that the Case Name is a presentable one, since it will appear on all bills prepared by ManageX. Do not skip this item. Each case MUST have a case name, a case number and a masterRcrd number. If this record is intended to serve merely as a "client" record, linking other subordinate cases, begin the case name with an aster- isk, "*" (eg: "*Smith Matters"). See the discussion of client re- cords in the Introduction section entitled "Case Names, Case Numbers, & Master Record Numbers". Next come the client's name, address, billing format and inter- val, phone, and any miscellaneous information you wish to include in the record. The name and address information should be entered as you want it to appear in a letter's address, since this data will actually be used for addressing letters and bills. For simplicity's sake, how- ever, it is recommended that you enter the client's last name before his first. An exception is the case of a client which is not a per- son (eg: IBM Corp), in which case the first name entered should be the name upon which you want to index the case. For instance, 26 The Hartford Group should be entered as "Hartford Group" or "Hartford Group, The", so that the indexing name is `Hartford', not `The'. The program will index cases by client last name (or other indexing name, if the client is not a person). At certain points in the program, you will be able to find some information very quickly if you enter the first letter of the client's last (indexing) name and then press the inquiry key, F1. The program assumes that the first name entered as the client's name is his last (indexing) name, and it is with that name's first initial that the indexing is done. If this assumption is inappropriate, you may alter it by designating ANY letter as the indexing initial. In the (M)ake mode, this will be handled with a couple of questions that appear when you store the case data onto the hard disk. NOTE: In the (E)dit mode, changing the indexing initial is accomplished by moving the cursor to the letter you wish to use and then pressing ^N (for `New initial'). For example, if your client were entered as "The Hartford Group", ManageX might have assumed that "The" is the last name and that "T" is the indexing letter. If you wished to change the index to "H", you would move the cursor to "H" and press ^N. Sec.4.A.7 Miscellaneous You may enter up to four lines of miscellaneous information. This facility is EXTREMELY useful, since you may enter ANYTHING you wish, such as the court, judge, and opposing counsel. At any future time, you may conduct a (H)unt to find all the cases that contain certain miscellaneous data. If, for instance, you included in this Miscellaneous section a West reference key number, you could later find all your cases that fall into that key number classification. Be as brief as you can here, so that you will have room to fill in lots of data on these four lines. Use abbreviations (eg: "OC:" for "Opposing Counsel:", or "WK:" for "West Key Number:" ), and be con- sistent in your entries from case to case. At various times in the life of a case, you may enter "markers" into the Miscellaneous sections. For instance, if some cases are turned over to a collection agency, you could "mark" each's Miscel- laneous section with some notation, such as "(Clctn)". Then, when- ever you wanted to find ALL such cases quickly, you could conduct a (H)unt for all the cases whose Miscellaneous sections contain the character sequence, "(Clctn)". If you begin the first line with a plus sign ("+"), the top two miscellaneous lines will be included on this case's bills, just below the case number and case name. This feature is useful if, for instance, you do lots of work for an insurance company which requires all bills submitted to contain such things as the accident date and claim number (there's more on this in the BILLS section of these instructions). 27 Beginning the first line with a plus will cause the first two lines of miscellaneous data to appear on the bill, even that which you do not want to appear, unless you enclose the portions you do not want to appear inside curly brackets, "{" and "}". Sec.4.A.8 Billing Format and Interval The "Billing Format" you wish to use for this case may be any of seven basic choices, ranging from 2 (the format disclosing the least information to the client), through 6 (the most explicit), to 8. For- mats 0 and 1 also exist to automatically provide an asterisk at the beginning of certain Description entries, but they are subjects re- served for discussion later. All the formats are similar to one an- other, though some provide information lacking in others. Each of the formats includes a salutation and signature block, unless you enter a minus after the format number. For example, format "6-" is identical to format "6", except that it does not include a salutation or signa- ture. There's more on this subject in the BILLS section. The "Intvl" is the billing interval, in months. Here, you should enter the number of months between the bills your firm will send out for the case. The number must be from 1 to 6. As examples, you should enter "1" for monthly, "3" for quarterly, and "6" for semiannual, billing. Sec.4.A.9 Salutation The "Salutation" is the opening (eg: "Dear Mr. Smith:") for any statements you may wish ManageX to prepare for that client. Sec.4.A.10 Methods of Charging Your Clients The "TmKeepr Rate Level" is the hourly rate level (1 to 6) at which you wish this case to be charged to the client (see the discus- sion of this subject in EMPLOYEE MODULE section). If you have an arrangement with your client whereby he is to pay you a certain amount each month until his debt is paid, enter that amount as the "MonthlyPmnt". If the MonthlyPmnt is zero, ManageX will assume that the client is supposed to pay the whole balance shown on each bill. If the MonthlyPmnt item is greater than zero, each bill for this case will contain a statement reminding the client that he need pay no more than the MonthlyPmnt, even though it may be less than the total balance due. Also, if the MonthlyPmnt is greater than zero, ManageX will NOT calculate interest for this case, even though you specify an interest rate, as discussed below. NOTE: Don't confuse a MonthlyPmnt with a Monthly Retainer (described below). The retainer is a regular monthly payment which is due you, whether or not the client has an outstanding balance at the time a bill is prepared. The MonthlyPmnt is due ONLY if the client has an outstanding 28 balance. The MonthlyPmnt is a payment on a debt, while the retainer is a sum paid to you regularly in order to keep you "on the line", ready to provide services at the drop of a hat. If you want the client to be charged no more than a certain amount per hour, regardless of which employee does work on the case, enter that amount as the "Max Hourly Rate". Whenever work is done for the case, ManageX will calculate the charges based upon the least of a) the Max Hourly Rate or b) the appropriate TmKeepr Rate Level hourly rate for the employee who does the work. If you leave the Max Hourly Rate at zero, this item will be ignored when charges are calculated, and the appropriate TmKeepr Rate Level charge rate for the employee who does the work will be used. If you wish to charge the client interest for any amounts he may owe you, enter the MONTHLY interest rate as the "IntRate". Enter it as a percentage (eg: 1.5% is entered as "1.5", not as ".015"). Dur- ing the billing process, ManageX will calculate simple interest on the last bill's balance remaining unpaid for the number of days you specified when you first set up to use the program (see the CUSTOMIZ- ING THE PROGRAM section). ManageX will also write a service/fee record for that interest, so that you may refer to the interest charge at a later date. That record will be entered into the ser- vice/fee file for the EARLIEST month covered by the bill. So, if the bill covers JUN 87 to AUG 87, the interest record for that bill will be put into the JUN 87 service/fee file. Note that interest added to a bill will be included in the balance forwarded upon which the next bill's interest, if any, will be calculated. Also remember that, whenever you want to stop charging interest, you need only (E)dit the case record and enter zero as the interest rate. If you want to charge a flat hourly rate for work done on the case, regardless of who does the work, enter that rate as the "Flat Hourly Rate". If a Flat Hourly Rate is used, that rate will always be used in the program's calculations for this case, no matter who does work on the case. If you wish to charge a fixed fee for this case, enter it next to the "Fixed Fee" item. If there is an entry here, no work done for this case will result in any charges, unless you use ^C to force ManageX to calculate a charge for that work (the SERVICES\FEES module section will discuss ^C's use). In other words, if you classify this case as a fixed fee case, ManageX will charge the case nothing for services (though disbursements WILL be charged, regardless of whether the case is a fixed fee one, as long as the "Chrg Dsbrs" item above is "YES"), unless you specifically tell it to when you make the ser- vice entry. In most cases, you will probably not instruct ManageX to charge the fee until the case is completed. If you wish to run the case on a contingency, enter the contin- gency rate as the "Cntngnt Percentage". For example, a one-third contingency would be entered as "33.33". 29 If the case is to be managed on a retainer, enter the "Monthly Retainer" to be charged to the client every month. As with the fixed fee and the contingency, ManageX will not charge this case for ser- vices, unless otherwise instructed at the time a service is entered. If you enter a retainer, the "Retainer Limit" on the next line will automatically be filled in (you may, of course, change it to any value you wish). The purpose of the Retainer Limit is to allow you to set a limit on the value of work provided each month under the retainer. Whenever a service or fee is provided which would cause that limit to be exceeded during any given month, a reminder will appear on the screen. You will then have the opportunity to instruct ManageX (by using ^C) to override the presumption against charging the case for that service or fee. In calculating the value of all work done on retainer cases, ManageX assumes that all services would be charged at the standard rate, Rate Level 1. The Retainer Limit has no effect upon disbursements or upon any type of transaction other than a service or fee. In other words, if you set a Retainer Limit, ManageX will keep track of only the service/fee monthly totals and will inform you only if a service/fee will cause a month's total to exceed the Retainer Limit. Note that ManageX uses the term, "retainer", to mean a recurring payment made to the firm each month by the client. Some firms, however, use the term to mean a fixed fee paid in advance by the cli- ent. If a case is to be charged a fixed fee (even though you may call it a "retainer"), it should be entered next to the "Fixed Fee" item, whether or not it is to be paid in advance; if it IS paid in advance, you should, as soon as possible, enter the payment in the RECEIPTS module, or, if appropriate, enter it as a trust account de- posit in the ACCOUNTS module. NOTE: The Fixed, Contingent, or Retainer fee that you enter in this CASE module is merely a reminder that you intend to charge such a fee at some future date. Your entry in THIS module will not result in a charge to the client. After all, how can the program know WHEN you wish to charge the fee? When you determine that it is time for you to charge a fee of some sort, you need simply make a fee record in the SERVICES/FEES module. For instance, while you are working on a contingent fee case, ManageX will not calculate any charges for work done (since it will have no hourly rate at which to do the figuring). When you finally win the case, take a few seconds to manually calculate the recovery per- centage due you and enter that amount as a fee in the SER- VICES/FEES module. The next bill that goes out will contain that charge. If you have an agreement with your client, by which you may charge him for work that you do, but under which the total charges for services and fees may not exceed a certain amount, enter that amount as the "Total Srvc/Fee Max". Whenever a service is performed which would cause this Max to be exceeded, the program will adjust the amount charged for that service to something (perhaps ZERO) which 30 will keep that client's total bill attributable to services and fees under the specified Total Srvc/Fee Max. You may, of course, override this adjustment at the time the service is entered, if you wish. This Total Srvc/Fee Max has no effect on disbursements or on any type of transaction other than a service or fee. In other words, if you set a Total Srvc/Fee Max, ManageX will keep track of only the service and fee totals and will inform you only if a service/fee will cause the total to exceed the Max. Sec.4.A.11 Unusual Fee Arrangements If you have a fee arrangement with your client that does not fall within any of those described above, simply enter it as a Mis- cellaneous note. Make sure, however, that, if it involves an hourly fee of any sort, that fee is reflected as either the "TmKeepr Rate Level" or the "Flat Hourly Rate". If you do not do so, ManageX will not automatically calculate charges for work done as it is en- tered into the computer. If, for instance, your deal with the client were that you were to work at $40 an hour AND receive 20% of any recovery, you would enter an hourly rate of 40.00 as the Flat Hourly Rate. You would also make a Miscellaneous note to the effect that you are to receive 20% of the recovery. If you tried to enter 20% next to the "Cntngnt Percentage" item, the $40 hourly rate you just entered would disappear, and ManageX would not be able to automati- cally calculate charges at $40/hour. When the recovery were finally received, you would refer to your miscellaneous note for confirmation of the contingent percentage and manually calculate your fee, your- self. Sec.4.A.12 Account Information If the case involves the use of an account, such as a trust or retainer, enter the "Account" number. Each case can actually handle two accounts (called "acct A" and "acct B"), but both these sub-ac- counts will be accessed under a single account "number". The bal- ances for accounts A and B will be displayed to the right of the ac- count number. Each time you make a transaction for either acct A or acct B (in the ACCOUNT, RECEIPTS, or DISBURSEMENTS module, not here), these balances will be automatically updated. Please note that this account's transactions will appear on any bills you prepare for the client, unless the account number entered here is preceded by an asterisk. For instance, retainer account SMITJO1 should be entered as "*SMITJO1" if you do not want its trans- actions to appear on bills for the case to which that account is attached (here, for illustration, the SMITJO1 account is attached to the SMITJO1 case). Sec.4.B (E)DIT/EXAMINE A RECORD The edit mode is useful for two things. The first is, of course, to change data pertaining to a record. The second is to simply examine that record's data. If you ever wish to just find out 31 some information about a record, you can enter the edit mode, specify the record to be 'edited' and just inspect it when it is displayed on the screen. No actual editing need be done unless you discover some- thing that should be changed. Sec.4.B.1 Specifying the Record to be Edited The first thing you will be asked after requesting an (E)dit is the Case Number of the case to be edited. NOTE: If you do not know it and would like some help, press F1, and you will be shown a list of all the cases on the disk. To narrow the search, you should press the FIRST letter of the client's last name just before you press F1. If you precede F1 with a letter, you will be shown only those cases whose client last names begin with that letter. If you have desig- nated an indexing initial other than the first letter of the client's last name, you should enter that initial, instead of the last name initial (see the discussion on using ^N in the Client Name Section, above). If you wish to edit all cases controlled by a certain Master- Rcrd, just press RET when first asked to enter the case number. You will then be asked to enter the MasterRcrd Number whose sub-cases you wish to edit. F1 will also work here as it is described in the pre- ceding paragraph, while pressing RET or ESC will take you back to the MENU. After you enter the MasterRcrd Number, you will be presented with the first case on file whose MasterRcrd Number matches the one you have entered. After you have finished with that case, you may press either F6 or ESC. F6 will cause the next case with that Mas- terRcrd Number (if there is one) to appear on the screen, while ESC will abort the procedure and take you back to the MENU, without show- ing you any other cases. Sec.4.B.2 Closing & Opening a case If you wish to close or reopen the case being edited, press ^C (for "Close/Open toggle"), instead of F6. Doing so will cause Mana- geX to ask whether you really wish to use the close/open toggle. If so, press "Y", and the case will be closed (or reopened, if it had already been closed). In addition to establishing a closing date, closing a case is useful to keep it from being billed. You may occasionally have a case which you do not want to omit yet, but which you do not want to bill for a while. If so, you might consider closing it. When you're ready to bill the case again, just open it by pressing ^C while ed- iting the case record. No closed cases will be billed, unless more than nine months have elapsed since their last bills. 32 Sec.4.C (H)UNT FOR SOME INFO If you press "H" while in the CASES MENU, you will be taken to a Hunt Gates display. Here, you are to select the gates you want to apply to the search through the case file. The Hunt Gates allow passage of only those records which contain information consistent with the Hunt Gate parameters you select. For example, if you wanted to find records of all clients who work for a certain company, you would enter a portion of the company name at item D (assuming that you consistently used the Addrs1 line for company names). If you wanted to find all cases with a certain masterRcrd number, you would enter a portion of that number at item A. Entering something at both A and D would narrow the search to only those cases whose MasterRcrd Numbers and Addrs1's contained matches for items A and D. Hunt routine searches for any item whose entry is alphanumeric (as opposed to strictly numeric) may be made on the basis of partial entries. For instance, if you wished to find all cases whose Addrs1's were either "Smith Enterprises" or "Smith, Inc", you would need to enter only "Smith" at item D. All cases whose Addrs1's con- tained "Smith" would be shown to you. Included among these cases might be "Jones and Smith, Ltd" and "The John Smith Company". Any case whose Addrs1 contained "Smith" would be included. Following the above example, you could also have chosen to search for Addrs1's containing "ith". If you had done so, in addi- tion to all the cases mentioned above, you might also have come ac- ross cases whose Addrs1's were "Ithica Fabricators" and "Lithe Forms, Inc". NOTE: This valuable partial entry feature is contained in the Hunt mode of every ManageX module. It is applicable to only alphanumeric items (those which may contain either letters or numbers). It does not apply to dates, amounts, and a few other items. NOTE: Suppose you elect to enter "SMITJO" at the Case Number gate. If there were more than one case whose numbers con- tain that sequence of characters, they would all pass through that gate. Hence, SMITJO, SMITJO1, SMITJO2, etc., would all be selected by ManageX for the hunt report. If, however, you wanted only SMITJO to pass through the gates (to the exclusion of SMITJO1 and SMITJO2), you would have to tell ManageX. You would do this by ending your "SMITJO" entry with ^E (for "Exact match"), instead of the usual RET. If a Case Number gate is set up for an exact match, a note will appear to the right, saying, "* exact *". If no such note is displayed, then ALL cases whose numbers contain matches for the entered character sequence will pass through the gate. If the "* exact *" note is shown, then only the case whose number exactly matches that character sequence will be reported. 33 To find cases applicable to a certain areas of business range, set Gates F and G accordingly. If all your divorce areas were numbered between 100 and 150, you would set Gate F to "100" and Gate G to "150" if you wanted to look for all your divorce work. To find only a SINGLE area of business, both Gates F and G (that is, both the lowest and the highest area of law to be reported) should be identical. ManageX keeps track of the date that the latest receipt for each case has been received. If you wanted to hunt for all cases whose latest receipt date were before 15 JAN 87, you would select item H and enter "15 JAN 87". The hunt performed would select only those cases for which a receipt had not been received since 15 JAN 87. This gate allows you to find cases that are seriously in arrears. Another check you might want to make of your cases is to find which ones have balances due greater than a certain amount or within a certain range. For instance, if you wanted to find all cases with balances between -100 dollars (that is, a $100 credit) and +100 dol- lars ($100 due you), you would select items I and J and enter "-100" and "100", respectively. If you wanted to find all cases with bal- ances due of over 500 dollars, you would select item J only and enter "500". Any gate that is left blank will be considered to be open, al- lowing ANY record to pass through. In other words, each record will be deemed to meet that gate's criterion, and, assuming that all the other gates' criteria are also met, will be displayed during the hunt. A "0" entered for some of the numeric items will accomplish the same purpose that a blank entry does for text (alphanumeric) items. To find only retainer cases, or cases which are masterRcrds, you would select N or O to change that item's assertion from NO to YES (or vice versa). To find only cases which are open or closed, you would select item L or M. To begin the hunt, press F6. For a printout of the hunt, press ^P at some time before you press F6. Once the Hunting process begins, you will be shown the data for each record conforming to the Hunt gates you have established. If you have chosen to display "One-Line" summaries (gate Q), data for each conforming record will appear on one line. The program will then automatically search for the next conforming record, display it, then look for the next one, and so on. You may make the program pause in its searching by pressing ^S or the space bar. Pressing ESC will abort the hunting process. If you have chosen the "Full-Screen" summaries display (gate Q), the data shown for each conforming record will appear on a screen identical to that used in the Edit mode. Only one conforming file's data will be displayed on the screen at one time. Unlike the One- Line summaries routine, this one will not search for the next conforming file unless you press F6 to indicate that you wish to move 34 on. If you want to abort the Hunt routine, press ESC instead of F6. If, while in the Hunt mode's Full-Screen summaries display, you see some information that should be changed, you may edit it as if you were in the Edit mode. There will be a few limitations on your ability to edit directly from the Hunt mode, but don't worry about them; ManageX will call your attention to them only if you attempt to violate them. Sec.4.D (^O)MIT ALL RECORDS MARKED FOR OMISSION This option works in a fashion identical to that used for the Omit mode in the EMPLOYEE module. 35 SECTION 5. SERVICES/FEES MODULE Sec.5.A (M)AKE A TIME SLIP OR FEE RECORD If the SERVICES MENU is being displayed, press "M" to make a record. You will be asked to enter the date of the service whose record you are about to create. Be sure to use the proper format for entering dates. If the date happens to be today, you may save a lit- tle time by entering "T" (for "today") instead of the complete date. If the date is not today, but is the same as the last date you en- tered at the keyboard, enter "S" (for "same"). Incidentally, you may enter "S" or "T" for the date anywhere in the program, and that entry will be translated by ManageX into the correct date. Sec.5.A.1 Case Number The next item you will have to fill in is a "Case Number". ManageX will search the case file for your entry. If such a case does not exist, you will be told so. If it does exist, the first several characters of that case's name will appear, along with the Max Hourly Rate (if you have entered such a maximum for that case). As with entering the date, you may shorten your entry here by enter- ing "S" (for "same") if the case number you wish to enter is the same as the last case number you have entered anywhere in the program. If you do not know the case number and would like some help, press F1, and you will be shown a list of all the cases on the disk. To narrow the search, you should press the first letter of the cli- ent's last name just before you press F1. If you precede F1 with a letter, you will be shown only those cases whose client last names begin with that letter. Sec.5.A.2 Service Performer If the case you enter exists, the responsible employee will be displayed as the "Service Performer" on the next line. If the actual performer does not happen to be the employee responsible for the case, you may enter the code of the employee or other employee who provided the service (or charged the fee) whose record is being cre- ated. Sec.5.A.3 Service or Fee Description "Service or Fee Description" appears on the next line. The entry you make, however, will take place in the blank area below the line. Here you should enter the service performed or the type of fee being charged. ManageX has word-wrap ability in this item. Don't bother hitting RET to get down to the next line of the description; when you're at the end of a line, ManageX will automatically place the cursor at the beginning of the next line. Your total entry may be up to 540 characters, but you should be as brief as possible -- the fewer lines you use in making your entry, the less disk space will be used to store it. 36 Sec.5.A.4 Reformatting If, after making changes to the service description, some lines are much too short, you may reformat the entire description by pressing F3. Pressing F3 causes extra space at the end of each line to be filled with data from the following line. It results in lines that are about the same length. Sec.5.A.5 Long Descriptions If you need more than 540 characters, enter what you can for this record and then make another record for the rest of the service or fee description. Only one of the records created for the same service or fee description may include Time or TOTAL entries. If more than one record for the same service or fee contains Time or TOTAL entries, the client may be charged more than once for that service or fee. Sec.5.A.6 Abbreviations Description entries may be shortened (and disk space saved) through the use of abbreviations or office codes (such codes are contained in a file named M-LBCODE.DAT, and you may use EDIT.COM to customize this file's codes for your own use -- see the CODES sec- tion). To enter a service code, simply type it and end it with a backslash. Assume, for example, that the code for "Office Conference with" were "OC". If you wished to enter an office conference with Mr. Smith, you could enter either "Office Conference with Mr. Smith" or "OC\Mr. Smith". If you entered the latter, you could be saving time by typing fewer characters and also saving disk space. ManageX would know what "OC\" means. If you subsequently prepared a bill containing the service description, "OC\Mr. Smith", ManageX would actually type out "Office Conference with Mr. Smith". If, when you enter a backslash, the computer's beeper sounds, you have entered a code or abbreviation which does not exist. Try again. If you need to see a listing of the acceptable codes, press the inquiry key, F1. If you press F1, you will be shown the contents of the M-LBCODE.DAT file (which contains not only codes, but also income/expense categories). Sec.5.A.7 Private Notes If you wish to enter something for your records but do not want it to appear on any bills prepared by ManageX, you may enclose it in curly brackets. If the service description were "OC\Mr. Smith{and his wife}", the bill containing that description would show only "Office Call with Mr. Smith". If, for some reason, you want NONE of your description to appear on the bill, you could enclose the entire description in curly brackets. 37 Sec.5.A.8 Asterisk Suppression Another way to prevent the ENTIRE description from appearing on bills is to begin the description with an asterisk. A description, "*OC\Mr. Smith", would not appear on a bill at all. The advantage of using the asterisk, instead of the curly brackets, is that the aster- isk will prevent nearly EVERYTHING on the service record from appear- ing on any bill. In addition to the description, the time spent and employee who did the service will also be suppressed at bill-printing time. The only thing from that service/fee record that will appear on a bill will be the amount charged, and even that item will appear only indirectly, as part of the total charges for the month. Who would want to use asterisk-suppression? The answer is, those professionals who don't like to itemize their bills, but prefer instead to send bills containing brief summaries of work done during each month. If you are one of these people, you could make sure that each service description entered during the month is preceded with an asterisk. Then, at the end of the month, you could make a service entry containing a summary of the work done that month (this entry, of course, would NOT contain an asterisk, because you would not want it to be suppressed). The bill subsequently prepared would show this end-of-month-summary and the total amount charged for ser- vices that month, but no individual service descriptions would appear (because they were preceded with asterisks). If you are one who pre- fers end-of-month summaries to itemized service descriptions, you should elect to use Billing Format #1 when you set up the record for each case (in the CASE module, of course). Format #1 is identical to #2 (the least detailed), except that format #1 automatically precedes each service description with an asterisk at the time the service description is entered into a record. The only difference between a record whose Service or Fee Des- cription entry begins with an asterisk and one whose doesn't is that the asterisk will prevent that record from being reflected on bills which are printed for actual mailing to clients. Pre-bills will not be affected by the asterisk (or by curly brackets). NOTE: Remember that, even though the bill mailed to your client will not contain any description preceded by an as- terisk, the bill's total WILL account for whatever amount is charged for each service. Since the client may not see the descriptions for all the services for which he is being charged, he may think that the total amount reflected on the bill is incorrect. Therefore, you should insure that whatever end-of-month summaries you use adequately explain the charges. Sec.5.A.9 Time Entries and Total Charge Next, enter the "Time Began". This is the time at which perfor- mance of the service noted above began. If you wish, you may use "P" for "PM" and "A" for "AM". Under this scheme, 10:05 AM would be entered as "1005A" and 2:34 PM would be entered as "234P" (colons 38 aren't needed). Alternatively, you may enter times with neither a "P" nor an "A", in which case ManageX will assume that any time bet- ween 12:00 and 6:59 is "PM", while anything between 7:00 and 11:59 is "AM". If you want ManageX to pick up the computer's system time, just enter "T", instead of the time. The first time you enter "T", the "stopwatch" will begin running -- entering "T" again will stop it. The stopwatch may be started and stopped only once per time slip, and you may enter "T" (to start and stop it) at any Time item on the screen OR at the Service Performer item. If a FEE, rather than a service, was entered above, DO NOT enter any times, since times should be used only to reflect the per- iod during which SERVICES are performed. Also, if this record is merely a continuation of the preceding record, do not enter any times if you already entered such times in the preceding record. The "Time Ended" is the time at which performance of the service noted above ended. If you do not wish to enter a Time Began or a Time Ended, but would prefer to enter just the Time Spent, simply press RET for each item you do not wish to enter. Once the beginning and ending times have been entered, the "Time Spent" on the service will be automatically calculated. This will be multiplied by the Service Performer's hourly rate (or the Max Hourly Rate for the case, if applicable, whichever is less) and displayed as the TOTAL. If, for some reason, you wish to reflect an amount of time different from what was calculated by the program, (or if you skipped the Time Began and Time Ended items) you may enter it at the "Time Spent" line. If you wish to charge an amount different from what ManageX has calculated, you may enter any amount you wish at the "TOTAL" line. If you want to record the time spent on the service, but do not wish to charge the case anything for that service, complete the Time Began, Time Ended, or Time Spent entry with a ^N (for "no charge"), instead of RET. Doing so will cause "NC" to appear at the end of the "Time Spent" line. If the case for which you are entering a service is a fixed fee, contingent, or retainer case, ManageX will automatically assume that you do not want to charge the case for time spent on specific ser- vices. If you wish to overrule this assumption, finish your time entries with ^C (for "charge this time"), instead of RET. Sec.5.A.10 @ $ [charging rate] Whenever you make any changes to a service/fee record, the hour- ly rate at which services will be charged is refigured. A series of default rates are used by the program to arrive at the appropriate rate for a particular service. If you wish to enter a special rate for this service, you may do so here. If you subsequently come back to edit this record, the rate may change back to one of the defaults if you make ANY CORRECTIONS AT ALL to the record. Therefore, when- 39 ever you edit/examine a service/fee record, be sure to double-check the rate before you move on with F6. Sec.5.A.11 Next Time Slip To finish the service record entry and move on, press F6. Mana- geX will then automatically take you to another time slip/fee entry record to be filled out. If you do not need to make any more en- tries, just press F6 again. Sec.5.B (E)DIT A TIME SLIP OR FEE RECORD When you choose to (E)dit a record, you will be asked the "Mon Yr of file to edit". Here, you should enter the month and year (eg: NOV 87) during which the record (or records) you wish to edit were entered. If the month to be searched happens to be the current month, just press RET. The next prompt will be "Case Number". Here, you should enter the number of the case whose transaction you wish to find. If you know the exact transaction record number to be edited, you may just press RET, without entering a case. Finally, ManageX asks for the "Record Number to Begin Search". If you just press RET without entering a record number, ManageX will show you each time slip or fee record whose case and month of entry are the same as those you entered above. The search will begin at the first record in the file. To go from each record to the next, press F6. To abort the search through the records press ESC. If, however, you do enter a record number, ManageX will skip all the records before that one, which will be the first shown to you. If it happens to be the ONLY one you want to look at, press ESC when you have finished with it (ESC causes the search to abort, remem- ber?). If you enter no "Mon Yr", case, or record number, the Edit mode will abort (unless there happens to be a transaction entered during the current month which does not apply to a particular case number). When you have finished editing/examining a record, press F6 to store it and to move on to the next record for the date you have designated (assuming that you have not designated a record number, in which case, only one record would be edited). Pressing ESC will cause ManageX to store the record and then to leave the Edit mode without going on to the next record. Sec.5.C (H)UNT FOR TIME SLIP OR FEE INFO Use these Hunt Gates in a fashion similar to the way they are used in the CASES module. 40 At the end of a hunt sequence, there will be a series of hunt totals. Included in the Hunt Totals are the total charges and total time worked. The totals account only for those records shown during the hunt. Charges and time for other records will not be included. For instance, if you abort a hunt by pressing the ESC key, the charges and time for the records which WOULD HAVE BEEN SHOWN (but for your having pressed ESC) will not be included in the totals. The time totals are broken down into hours charged and hours not charged. The hours not charged are further broken down into various categories, most of which are self-explanatory. The "Other time not charged" item may include time for services which were not charged because a case's Total Srvc/Fee Max has been exceeded (though the "Time not charged that could have been" item will contain most such time). The dollar values assigned to "not charged" items are calcu- lated by multiplying each service's time not charged by the standard hourly rate (rate level 1) of the employee responsible for that ser- vice. Sec.5.D (Z)IP TO A TIME SLIP As you go through a day, you will often find yourself working on several cases simultaneously. As you perform a task for each, you should enter it onto a time slip. Of course, you may make out a separate time slip for each task performed. But, alternatively, you may add each new service performed for a case to the first time slip opened that day for that case. If your preference is to keep adding to the first time slip, you may use this (Z)ip function to find that record quickly when you need to make an addition. After pressing `Z', you will be shown a list of up to twenty cases with which you have dealt during the day. Press the letter corres- ponding to the one whose time slip you need to amend. 41 SECTION 6. DISBURSEMENTS MODULE The DISBURSEMENTS module is used for ALL firm disbursements, whether or not they apply to particular clients or cases. Office supply purchases and employee salary payments, for example, should be recorded in this module, as should all your expenses for the SMITJO1 case. Anytime the firm transfers some of its money to someone else (or to someone else's account) for ANY reason, that transfer is a disbursement which should be entered here. Sec.6.A (M)AKE A DISBURSEMENT Press "M" to make a record. You will be asked to enter the date of the disbursement whose record you are about to create. Be sure to use the proper format for entering dates, or use "T" or "S". Then ManageX might (or might not, if the program parameters -- as specified in the "Account Adjustment" discussions in the CUSTOMIZ- ING THE PROGRAM section -- do not allow it) ask which account is to be debited for the batch of disbursement entries you are about to make. If, for instance, you want sub-account A of the CHECK1 account to be debited for the disbursements, enter "CHECK1-A". Be sure that you enter the account NUMBER, not its name. If you don't want ManageX to automatically withdraw the disburse- ment amounts you enter from a particular account, just press RET to ignore the question -- you may always subsequently go to the ACCOUNTS module to enter the appropriate withdrawals, if you wish. See the "Check Number and Accounts Adjustments" section below. ManageX will then take you into the Edit mode, so that you can enter the new record's data. You may do so in the manner described in this manual's preceding sections in their discussions of making and editing records. NOTE: In the (M)ake mode, you may save time by entering "S" (for "same as last entry") for any item, such as the Case Number or the Description. "S" will cause the Case Number, Description, etc., from the last record just entered to be entered again for the current record. Sec.6.A.1 Case Number The first item you will have to fill in is a "Case Number". You need not make an entry if, for some reason, the disbursement you are entering does not apply to a case. If you do enter a case number, ManageX will search the case file for that case. If such a case does not exist, you will be told so. You need not enter a Case Number if the disbursement does not apply to a case. If, for instance, you were entering the purchase of 42 a desk for the firm's offices, you would not charge it to a particular case. ManageX is capable of tracking all your disbursements, whether or not they apply to specific cases. Sec.6.A.2 Expense Category If you wish to later be able to sort your disbursements by cate- gory, enter the category number (1 to 9999) here. If you are in doubt about the appropriate category number, press F1 for a listing and be ready to press the space bar to stop and start the listing. If you press F1, you will be shown the contents of the M-LBCODE.DAT file (which contains not only codes, but also income/expense cate- gories). If M-LBCODE.DAT does not have the category you wish, remem- ber that you may modify it with EDIT.COM to suit your individual needs (see the CODES section). If the category you enter does not exist, ManageX will tell you; otherwise, a description of the category will appear at the bottom of the screen. Sec.6.A.3 Payee or Creditor "Paid/Owed to" is the next item to be filled in. Here you should enter the name of the person or company from whom you made the purchase or to whom you made the payment. You will have to be brief here, since your entry is limited to only a few characters. If the disbursement is a simple advance made directly to a client, enter the client's name here if you did not already enter it as part of the Disbursement Description above. Sec.6.A.4 Disbursement Amount Next, enter the "Amount Paid/Owed". If you do not know how much this amount is, just enter zero; you can always come back to this record at a later date to enter the correct amount when it be- comes known. An example of this situation would be a long distance telephone call which you want to enter now, but for which you will not know the charges until you receive the telephone bill in a few weeks. If you enter an amount of zero now, you may subsequently change it by using the Edit mode. If you want the record to reflect the amount you paid, but do not wish to charge the client for the disbursement, complete the "Amount Paid/Owed" with a ^N (for "no charge"), instead of RET. Doing so will cause "NC" to appear at the end of the entry. Sec.6.A.5 Check Number If you are paying for the disbursement with a check, you may enter the check number. This is the number of the check (from the firm's account) with which the disbursement is being paid. If you have already entered a check number during this batch of disbursement entries, you may just enter "N" (for "next"), and the check number will be automatically assigned. 43 Sec.6.A.6 Account Adjustments If you are withdrawing money from one of your accounts in order to make the disbursement, the withdrawal will have to be recorded under the proper account number. You could do so by going to the ACCOUNTS module and entering an appropriate transaction. ManageX, however, saves you some time by allowing you to update the account right here, in the DISBURSEMENTS module. Now, here's a place where you'll really have to concentrate. If you wish to transfer funds from one account to another (and ONLY if you have NOT, at the beginning of the disbursement routine, already told ManageX which account to debit for this batch of trans- actions), press F5 when you have finished making the disbursement entry, instead of the usual F6. ManageX will then ask you to enter the number of the account with which you wish to deal. After answering a couple of questions about the transaction with that account, you will be asked to enter ANOTHER account number. If you wish to make another account transaction, enter the number of that account; otherwise, press RET. NOTE: If you accidentally press F6, when you had intended to press F5, you will not be able to transfer account funds for the transaction just entered while you are in the DISBURSE- MENTS module. You will, however, be able to accomplish this transfer by going to the ACCOUNTS module, as soon as you have the opportunity, and entering the appropriate deposit(s) and/or withdrawal(s). If the expense category you entered for this disbursement is associated with an account number in the M-LBCODE.DAT file (see the CODES section of these instructions), there will be no need to press F5, as long as, at the beginning of this disbursement routine, you indicated the account which is to be debited for the current batch of transactions (or if, when ^Customizing the program, you entered an account to be automatically credited and debited whenever receipts or disbursements are entered -- see the CUSTOMIZE THE PROGRAM section). The account indicated in the M-LBCODE.DAT file will automatically be credited or debited, as indicated with a plus or minus in the approp- riate column of the M-LBCODE.DAT file. Allowing ManageX to refer to the data contained in that file will save you the time you would other- wise spend pondering which accounts should be involved when double entries are appropriate. If you're confused by all this, just skip this paragraph now and come back when your able to concentrate better. Sec.6.B (E)DIT A DISBURSEMENT The editing procedures have been covered under "(M)ake a dis- bursement", above. 44 For a discussion of how to find a specific record, refer to the section on editing a time slip or fee in the SERVICES/FEES module section. Sec.6.C (H)UNT FOR INFO These Hunt Gates are similar to those found elsewhere. At the end of a hunt sequence, there will be a series of hunt totals. Included in the Hunt Totals are the total charges. The totals account only for those records shown during the hunt. Charges for other records will not be included. For instance, if you abort a hunt by pressing the ESC key, the charges for the records which WOULD HAVE BEEN SHOWN (but for your having pressed ESC) will not be in- cluded in the totals. "AdvncChrgd" is the total of disbursements charged to the various cases followed by ManageX. "AdvncNOTchrgd" is the total of disburse- ments which were made on behalf of cases, but which are NOT being charged to those cases. "Non-CaseTot" is the total of disbursements made by the firm for matters not involving cases. Examples are the firm's electricity bill and rent. NOTE: An `advance' is any disbursement made on behalf of a client. The reason ManageX follows advances as a special category of disbursement is that they may be treated dif- ferently, for tax purposes, from other business expenses. 45 SECTION 7. ACCOUNTS MODULE Sec.7.A (O)PENING A NEW ACCOUNT To open an account, select the (O)pen option from the menu. First, you will be asked to enter an account number. The number you assign an account will have a direct bearing upon how easily you are able to extract information from ManageX's files. Please see the NUMBERING SYSTEM PROPOSAL section. Next, you will have to enter a descriptive name for the account, and you will be asked to designate whether this is to be a (C)redit or a (D)ebit account. If you are unsure of its classification, enter "-"; otherwise, enter "C" or "D". In the (H)unt summaries, Credit accounts will be treated as negative accounts. In adding up the (H)unt totals, positive Credit account balances will be treated as negative, while negative Credit account balances will be treated as positive. ManageX will then ask whether subaccount A of the new account will be used as a retainer account for a case. If not, answer `N'. If you answer `Y', you will be asked to enter a Desired Balance and a Minimum Acceptable Balance. The Desired Balance is the balance you would like to maintain in the account (preferably an amount to which your client has agreed). The Minimum Acceptable Balance is the point at which you will want to ask your client to replenish his account to the Desired Balance. Assume, for instance, that the account's De- sired Balance is $1000 and that its Minimum Acceptable Balance is $500. As you do work for your client, you will be withdrawing money from this retainer account. At some point you will want to ask your client to replenish the account to the Desired Balance of $1000. This threshold is reached when the account's balance is below $500. Whenever a bill is sent to the client, ManageX will check the account balance. If it is below the Minimum Acceptable Balance of $500, the bill will contain a request for the amount needed to bring the ac- count's funds up to the Desired Balance of $1000. If the account balance is over the Minimum Acceptable Balance when the bill is pre- pared, no such request will be made. NOTE: Subaccount A may be used for ANY type of account. Subaccount B may be used for any type, EXCEPT a retainer. Always use subaccount A for retainers. Sec.7.B (M)AKING A TRANSACTION ENTRY First you will have to enter a transaction date. Then, you will be asked to enter an account number. After you do so, the program will attempt to confirm that the account exists. If it does, you will be allowed to fill in the rest of the transaction data. If it does NOT exist, you will be asked whether you wish to open an account with that number. If not, just press RET. 46 If you DO want to open a new account, simply press "O". The ac- count record will then be prepared as discussed above in the OPENING A NEW ACCOUNT section, and you will be allowed to make your first transaction. You will be expected to tell ManageX whether this transaction affects subaccount A or subaccount B. ManageX will track both subaccounts under the same account number. Each is tracked separately, so the effect is of having two different accounts, both being followed under the same number. Whenever you want to retrieve information concerning this account, you will always be told which transactions apply to subaccount A and which apply to subaccount B. The "Incm/Expns Category" may be entered if the account transac- tion you are entering is for income or an expense. If you do not know the correct category, just hit F1 and be ready to press the space bar to stop and start the listing of the M-LBCODE.DAT file (which, remember, will contain not only categories, but also service abbreviations/codes). Next, fill in a description of the transaction, if you wish. The last item to be filled in is the "Check Number". If the transaction is for a deposit, just enter "D". If it is for a with- drawal without the issuance of a check, enter "W". If it is for a withdrawal accompanied by the issuance of a check, enter the number of the check with which the withdrawal from the account will be made. Do not enter a check number if the transaction is a deposit (for example, if you are depositing a client's check into an account, do not enter the client's check number here -- enter "D", for "De- posit"). The check number must not be greater than 30000. Since ManageX will try to prevent your withdrawing more from the account than is presently contained therein, always be sure to enter a depos- it for an account before you attempt any withdrawals. If you wish, you may use the same check number on several trans- action records. You might want to do so if you will be using the same check to pay for several different categories of expenses. If such is the case, make a separate account transaction for each cate- gory and use the same check number for all the transaction records. After you have completed the transaction entry, press F6 to move on. Before taking you to the next transaction screen, ManageX will ask whether you wish to have the amount entered withdrawn from (or deposited to) another account. If you do not wish to do so, just press RET; otherwise, enter the appropriate account number and then tell ManageX whether the money is to be withdrawn from (or deposited to) subaccount A or subaccount B in the account just designated. ManageX will automatically fill out a record for that withdrawal (or deposit) and store it on the disk before taking you to the next blank transaction record. You will not see this automatically-created record at the time it is created, but do not worry -- it IS being created. As with any other account transaction, you may have it 47 displayed at any future time either by requesting a (H)unt through the transactions made during this date, or by requesting to (E)dit/- Examine the transaction. Sec.7.C (H)UNTING THROUGH ACCOUNT TRANSACTIONS The (H)unt routine is similar to those found elsewhere in Mana- geX. One distinction is Hunt Gate K, "Hunt by Account #/Cat". If this item is "NO", the transactions will be listed in the order in which they were entered into the file, regardless of which account or income/expense category is affected by each. If this item is "YES", the transactions will be listed in blocks, each block corresponding to an account or income/expense category. If you want to see all the checks and other transactions dealing with each account and income/- expense category grouped together, press "K" to make this item "YES". If Hunt Gate K is "YES", the hunt will take considerably longer than would be the case if it were "NO". Each hunt will end with a listing of the account balances. If a balance is enclosed inside left and right carets, "<" and ">", it is a Credit account balance. For reporting purposes only, ManageX treats Credit accounts as negative Debit accounts. Hence, Credit account balances that are negative will be ADDED to the total, while positive ones will be SUBTRACTED. Accounts that are neither Credit nor Debit will be treated as if they were Debit accounts in this totaling. Sec.7.D (^O)MITTING ACCOUNTS Accounts are omitted by selecting the (^O)mit option in the ACCOUNTS MENU. The two-step omission process is similar to that found in the EMPLOYEE and CASE modules, but the tagging takes place directly from the menu, not in the edit mode. SEC.7.E ACCOUNTS AND CATEGORIES Remember that ManageX draws a clear distinction between an account and an income/expense category. An account is an actual body of money. It is the value of an account that is affected by a receipt or expenditure. A category, on the other hand, is, just as name implies, simply a type of expense or income. It is NOT a body of money, but the transaction involving it may affect such a body (account). For instance, a rent payment might fall into an expense category called "rent", but the actual body of money affected is probably the "checking" account. Of course, you might also have an account called "rent", but that coincidence should not cloud the distinction between the body of money called "rent" and the type of expenditure called "rent". ManageX will, for any period of time, track the total value of transactions involving each income and expense category, but it does not collect those figures into an "account". 48 -- IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! -- Establishing a complete "chart of accounts" with ManageX involves: 1) opening the actual accounts in the ACCOUNTS module; and 2) entering a list of income/expense categories in the M-LBCODE.DAT file (see the CODES section of these instructions). 49 SECTION 8. RECEIPTS MODULE There are few significant differences between this module's operation and any other modules'. If you need help with any of this module's features, please refer to descriptions of comparable ones in the previous sections of these instructions. If you don't know what an advance (as displayed when (M)aking a receipt entry for a case) is, see the end of the DISBURSEMENTS MODULE section. 50 SECTION 9. BILLS The preparation of bills is begun by pressing "B" when the MAIN MENU is being displayed. Bills should be sent on a monthly basis. Sec.9.A OVERVIEW Sec.9.A.1 Composition of Bills Bills consist of six parts: 1 a return address; 2 a client name, address and salutation, drawn from the appropriate case's record at the time of the bill's preparation; 3 an opening statement; 4 a basic data section drawn from transaction data at the time of the bill's preparation; 5 a closing statement; and 6 a signature block. These components are printed, one after the other onto each client's statement. The format of the statements permits the use of 8-1/2" by 11" paper, single sheets or formfeed. Almost any modern printer may be used. All statements should be printed at a pitch of 10 char- acters per inch. Sec.9.A.2 Billing Formats You select each case's billing format by (M)aking or (E)diting that case's record (in the CASE module). The seven formats are all similar to each other, differing mainly in the amount of service/fee information provided. Format 2 is the least informative, while for- mat 6 is the most. There is also format 1, which is essentially similar to format 2, but which automatically inserts an asterisk before each service description entry, so that the service will not be described on the bill. At the time that each service description is entered, this asterisk may be erased if you want the service to be shown on the bill. Remember, asterisks prevent everything but the amount from showing on the bill (and the amount is reflected only indirectly, in the totals). Format 0 is identical to 1, except that, in addition to automatically inserting an asterisk before each SERVICE description entry, the program will also precede all DISBURSEMENT, RECEIPT, and ADJUSTMENT (but not ACCOUNT) descriptions with asterisks. Each format includes a salutation and signature block, unless the format number ends with a minus. For example, "6-" would not include a salutation and signature block, while format "6" would. It is suggested that, before you do any actual billings, you test each billing format, to see which you prefer. Do a FICTIONAL 51 client's bill for the current month (be sure you've entered some fictional services, disbursements, and receipts). Then go to the CASE module and (E)dit that client's case, in order to change the billing format. Then do another bill. Repeat the process until you have collected several printouts of the different billing formats (2 through 8, and 2- through 8-). File them for future reference. Doing these practice bills will also allow you to see how you like your return address, opening & closing paragraphs, and signature blocks. Sec.9.A.3 Return Address File (M-RETADD.LTR) The return address must be contained in a file called "M- RETADD.LTR". Whenever ManageX prepares a bill, it will find this file and print it onto the statement. This file should, of course, contain the firm's return address. It should be created with EDIT.COM before you try to prepare any statements. If it is not on the disk when a statement is prepared, no return address will be printed. If you plan to use letterhead stationery, erase M-RETADD.LTR from the disk and make sure that you have entered the correct figure for the number of "Lines from paper top to letterhead printing bottom" in the MAIN MENU's (^C)ustomize routine. After the return address (if such a file exists) is printed, ManageX will print the statement date (selected by you at the time the statements are prepared), followed by the client's name, address, and salutation (as stored in the Case record of the case for which the statement is being prepared). The statement date will begin in the same column as top line of the return address, if the M- RETADD.LTR files exists; otherwise, it will appear at the right mar- gin. If the format chosen for the case whose bill is being prepared ends with a minus (eg: "6-"), then no salutation will be printed. Between the client address and the salutation will appear a short reference ("RE:") section, which will include the case Number and case Name. Also included will be portions of the case record's Miscellaneous data IF the first line of that data begins with a plus sign (see the Miscellaneous discussion in the CASE MODULE section). Sec.9.A.4 Opening Statement Next comes the opening portion of the bill, which should include any remarks you wish to precede the details of the statement. An example would be, Following is a summary of the services we have recently rendered in your behalf. The opening portion must be in a file named "M-BLOPEN.LTR". M- BLOPEN.LTR is included with the ManageX program as an example. You may modify it with your EDIT.COM to suit your purposes. After the opening portion is printed, ManageX will print the statement details. This part of the statement consists of a listing 52 of all services, fees, disbursements, income, etc., pertaining to the case whose statement is being prepared for a certain month. If you do not want an opening paragraph printed on your state- ments, erase the "M-BLOPEN.LTR" file from your hard disk. Sec.9.A.5 Closing Statement The closing portion of the bill should include any remarks you wish to follow the details of the statement. An example would be, Please promptly pay any amount shown above as being due this firm. Thank you. The closing file for a bill with a balance owed is "M-BLOWED.- LTR", while that for a bill with a zero or credit balance is "M- BLCRDT.LTR". These files are included with the ManageX program as examples. You may modify them with EDIT.COM to suit your purposes. If you do not want a closing paragraph printed on your state- ments, erase the appropriate ".LTR" files from your hard disk. Sec.9.A.6 Signature Block The signature block portion of the bill also requires a file created by EDIT.COM. The file name must be "M-SGNxxx.LTR", where "xxx" are the employee's initials. For example, Fred W. Tanner's signature block file would be "M-SGNFWT.LTR", while Jerry Formy's would be "M-SGNJF.LTR". The initials used must be consistent with the names and middle initial entered into each employee's record (in the EMPLOYEE module). "M-SGNSS.LTR" (for employee Sam Snort) is included with the program as an example. If you do not want a signature block printed on your statements, erase the appropriate "M-SGNxxx.LTR" files from your hard disk. Sec.9.A.7 Summary Sheet If a master record has any subordinates, the bills for the mas- ter and its subordinates will be prepared, one after the other, be- fore bills for any other cases are done. After each master's series of bills is printed, a summary sheet for all its cases will also be printed. It will list the amount due (or credit) for each case as- signed to the master and will show a grand total. Either you may append this sheet to the back of all the bills sent to the client whose master and subordinates have just been prepared, or you may use it as a cover sheet for those bills. Sec.9.B PREPARING A BILL Sec.9.B.1 Actual Mailing or Pre-Mailing The first thing ManageX will ask you when you opt to prepare 53 a bill will be whether you wish the statement prepared to be an "(A)ctual Mailing or (P)re-mailing Statement". Pre-billing state- ments are based upon billing format 6 (the most informative), but they also contain some extra information not found in their Actual Mailing counterparts, such as the record number of each transaction included in the statements. You may use this record number to quick- ly locate any record that needs to be altered before an Actual Mail- ing takes place. If, for instance, disbursement record 34 contains erroneous information, you may change it by editing that record in the DISBURSEMENTS module. Sec.9.B.2 Date of Statement and Month of Bill ManageX will ask you to enter the date you wish to appear on the statement. Then, you will enter the "Month to be billed". For ex- ample, if you are preparing January 1987's bill, you should enter "JAN 87". NOTE: If some of the cases whose bills you will be preparing have billing intervals of more than one month, those bills will be prepared only if they are due during the month spec- ified above. Therefore, be sure that the month you specify is in the LATEST month which you want included in the bills prepared. If a bill is due during that month, it will cover all months since that case's last bill was sent. If the last bill was prepared during the middle of the month whose bills you now want prepared, the new bill will cover that entire month (not just the portion of the month which was not already billed), as well as subsequent months. If a bill is not due for a case whose billing interval is greater than one month, that case will be skipped for billing purposes, and no bill will be prepared. Case skip- ping occurs only in the Actual Mailing billing mode. Pre- billing statements, however, may be prepared for any case, for any month, at any time. You may also force ManageX to prepare a case's Actual Mailing bill if you designate its Case Number on the billing Hunt Gates screen. Try not to prepare a case's bill for a particular month if there is any likelihood that more work will be done for that case during that month. For example, resist sending the January bills on 19 January if you are likely to do any more work during January. If you were to provide some services between the 19th and the 31st, you would have to re-prepare January's bills in order to advise your clients of those services. Those services will NOT appear on your February bills if January has already been billed (though January services WILL appear on February bills if January has NOT been billed yet). The only exception to this advice against billing for partial months is that you may consider such a bill for a case if you will not be doing any more work for that case during that month (as would be true if the case were completed). 54 It is recommended that you establish a routine whereby you reg- ularly prepare each month's bills at the beginning of the following month (ie: send January's bills sometime in February). If you stick to this routine, your billing will run easily, without your having to worry about the various caveats contained in this discussion. If you resist the temptation to alter this routine in what you might consi- der "special" circumstances, you will keep your billing procedures uncomplicated and smooth. In those few instances when you MUST pre- pare a bill at an unusual time, you can feel confident that ManageX will follow your wishes. But, for the sake of keeping your internal office procedures as simple as possible, strive to do ALL your bill- ing on a regular basis. Sec.9.B.3 Hunt Gates Finally, a familiar Hunt Gates screen will appear. You use these gates, just as you do in other modules of the program, to sel- ect the cases for which you want statements prepared. For example, to hunt only those cases whose last payments were before 22 January 1987, select item D and enter "22 JAN 87". However, the first time you do your billing each month, you should leave the Hunt Gates ex- actly as they are initially set, so that you will insure ALL CASES DUE FOR BILLS WILL BE BILLED. When the Hunt Gates initially appear, they will be set to make ManageX prepare a bill for EVERY case due one. A case is considered due for a bill if: 1) the number of months established as its Bill- ing Interval (in the CASES module) have elapsed since the last bill was sent; and 2a) that case has had some activity since its last bill was sent, or 2b) you are due some money for that case. A case will also be billed, even if no activity has occurred since a case's last bill, if nine or more months have elapsed since that bill was sent. NOTE: No case for which you are owed money should go unbilled more than nine months. To allow a longer lapse would risk the loss of balance-forward data. ManageX has a feature which is designed to automatically prepare a bill for each case that has gone that long without a bill (assuming that the client still owes you money). However, there are ways you might accidentally cause this protection to be defeated. Therefore, YOU must insure that nine months never elapse between any case's bills. IF YOU WANT ALL CASES DUE BILLS TO ACTUALLY HAVE BILLS PREPARED, DO NOT CHANGE THE HUNT GATES THAT INITIALLY APPEAR. ALWAYS MAKE A PRACTICE OF PREPARING BILLS FOR ALL CASES DUE THEM AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH. If you do not want the statements printed, but would prefer to see them on the screen, press ^P (the print toggle) JUST BEFORE pres- sing F6 to begin hunting for cases to be billed. Differing from most other modules, the print toggle in this one is initially ON. 55 Sec.9.B.4 First Case to be Prepared After you press F6 to begin the hunt, you will be asked to des- ignate which case is to be prepared first. ManageX initially assumes the first one in the file, but you may change this assumption by entering the Case Number of the case with which you wish to begin. In most cases, you should simply press RET to ignore the prompt (and allow ManageX to stick with its assumption). But occasionally, you will want to start somewhere other than at the beginning of the file. Sec.9.B.5 Aligning the Paper You will next be asked to align the paper in the printer. You should make sure that the print head is one inch below the top of the first sheet of paper. Even if you are using letterhead, you must follow this instruction (one inch below the PAPER TOP, not below the letterhead). If you are using letterhead, though, you should have told ManageX, in the CUSTOMIZING THE PROGRAM section, how many lines there are to the bottom of the letterhead printing. Sec.9.C PRE-BILLS The top of a pre-bill will show selected items reflecting the case's current status. Such items include the current balance, which may differ from the final balance shown at the bottom of the bill (since the end of the month being billed will probably be earlier than the current date). The pre-bill will also contain a reference to the record number of each item reflected thereon. If you need to change an item, you will know exactly which record to edit before the actual bill is sent. The bottom of the pre-bill may contain a reminder ("Apply ... ___") to apply funds in the client's acct A or acct B to his debt. The reminder may also be to the effect that you should consider charging the client the agreed upon fixed or contingent fee or to charge the client interest. If you wish to apply the funds about which you are being reminded, put a check mark in the blank space, so that your secretary will know that an appropriate record needs to be entered before the Actual Mailings are prepared. For instance, if it were now time to charge the client the agreed-upon fixed fee, you would check "Apply Fixed Fee ___". Your secretary would then know that she has to make a service/fee entry for that case in the amount of the fixed fee before the Actual Mailing for that case is prepared; otherwise, the fixed fee will not be charged. A pre-bill will show ALL the pertinent data for each transac- tion, even though the actual bill prepared for the same case may be prepared in a less detailed format and may have some information suppressed or expanded. Abbreviations MAY appear as such on pre- bills, but actual bills will spell out the items being abbreviated. Actual bills will not show items intended to be hidden, such as items whose descriptions begin with asterisks, but pre-bills will may them. 56 The pre-bill is not intended to be a perfect reflection of the actual bill, but rather an informative tool to help you review what has been done during the period being billed. Sec.9.D. STATEMENT RE-PREPARATION You should avoid having a bill prepared for a month preceding one for which another bill has already been prepared. For example, if February's bill has already been prepared, and you subsequently have January's prepared again, you will also have to re-prepare February's. The reason for this is that the beginning balance for the bill already prepared for February will have been based upon the ending balance for the January bill already prepared. If you were now to go back and change January's bill, the January ending balance might not be the same as it had been before. Therefore, the beginning balance for the February bill already prepared might no longer be accurate. Only if you prepare February's (and any other succeeding month's) bill again, will all beginning and ending balances become consistent again. 57 SECTION 10. ADJUSTMENT MODULE This module is used to enter write-offs and other bill-refining adjustments. Adjustments are entries which you want to be included in bills, but which do not fall under any of the more specific clas- sifications recognized by ManageX (services/fees, receipts, and dis- bursements). To enter the ADJUSTMENT module, press "W" (for "Write-off or other Adjustment") while you are in the MAIN MENU. When the ADJUSTMENT MENU appears, select "M" to create the adjustment record. You will be asked the adjustment's effective date, and then you will be shown a screen of items to be filled in. All are self-ex- planatory, with the exception of "(W)rite-off or (C)harge". If the adjustment amount is to be subtracted from a client's bill, you should press "W", since your intention is write it off. If, instead, you wish to add to your client's debt, press "C", since you intend to charge him more than he would otherwise owe. 58 SECTION 11. CODES, AREAS OF BUSINESS, NUMBERING SYSTEM Sec.11.A CODES (ABBREVIATIONS, CATEGORIES) The M-LBCODE.DAT file contains three types of information, all conforming to the same general format. It holds a listing of each 1) service code, 2) income category, and 3) expense category. Each line in the file consists of an abbreviation (from 1 to 3 char- acters long) and the statement being abbreviated. Other optional items are also included, as described below. You are encouraged to change this file with EDIT.COM, so that it fits your needs exactly. Go to EDIT.COM (to examine M-LBCODE.DAT) by pressing ^E when the MAIN MENU is displayed. When the EDIT.COM menu is on the screen, press `E' (for "Expense/Income/Service" file) to modify M-LBCODE.DAT. The file may have a total of up to 200 lines. The items in each line must be lined up EXACTLY, and each line must end with a carriage RETurn. The abbreviation may be from one to three characters in length and must begin in column 1. The statement being abbreviated should begin in column 6, 7, 8 or 9, and may not extend beyond column 30. The TAB key in EDIT.COM will help you align your data. You may have blank lines which contain no information, and you may have lines containing headings, but you may have no more than 200 lines. Sec.11.A.1 Income/Expense Category Numbers If you are using a line for an income or expense description, the next-to-last item (beginning at column 33) may be the income or expense category, and the first item (the abbreviation) may be left blank if you wish. That category may be any number between 1 and 9999. Do not use zero. Begin your category entry at column 33. If it is an income category, begin the entry with "I-"; if it is an expense category, begin it with "E-". For example, an income category is represented by "I-1001", while "E-2054" represents an expense category. Do NOT use the same numbers for both expense and income categories. For instance, do not designate both these categories: I-2054 and E-2054. And DO NOT USE FRACTIONS to designate categories -- only WHOLE numbers are allowed. Sec.11.A.2 Optional Category Levels There may be up to four levels of income and expense categories. The first is the income-expense distinction mentioned above ("E-" for expense, "I-" for income). The next level is designated by a des- cription (the second item in each line, remember?) containing ONLY capital letters. The level following that one must have at least one letter of the description capitalized, but NOT ALL the letters. And the last level must not have ANY capitalized letters. Take a look at the M-LBCODE.DAT file, as provided by Integra, to see examples of these category levels. 59 Sec.11.A.3 Optional Account Numbers The last item is reserved for account numbers, may be up to twelve characters long, must be preceded by a plus or a minus, and must be ended with either "-A" or "-B" (for a total of fifteen char- acters, beginning in column 43). The account whose number you enter here is the one you want ManageX to automatically debit or credit whenever a transaction involving a certain expense or income category is made. Begin the account number entry with a plus ("+") if you want a DEPOSIT to be automatically made to that account. Begin it with a minus if you want a WITHDRAWAL. You must end the account number with either "-A" or "-B", depending upon which sub-account you wish to be affected. Assume, for instance, that you will always want your "RCVBL" (receivables) account to be debited whenever you receive a payment falling into income category I-1001. Beginning at column 43 of the line where category I-1001 is described, you might enter "-RCVBL-A". The minus sign indicates that you want your I-1001 category receipts to be WITHDRAWN from the account whose number (not account NAME) is RCVBL. The "-A" indicates that you want subaccount A (not B) to be affected by the transaction. VERY IMPORTANT: Remember that the account number you enter in this last item is only for the transaction which will BALANCE the pri- mary account transaction (which, in the case of a receipt, will be a deposit to some account, probably your checking account, and, in the case of a disbursement, will be a withdrawal, probably also from your checking account). The primary account will be entered AT THE TIME you begin making your batch of disbursement or receipt entries, or it will have been set in the CUSTOMIZING module (please read the CUSTOMIZING THE PROGRAM section, beginning with Sec.1.B.1.i). Sec.11.A.4 Optional Service Rates If a line is being used for a SERVICE, rather than a disburse- ment or receipt, the last item (beginning at column 43) may be a charge rate for that service. You may enter a TmKeepr Hourly Rate Level by entering "L" and the number of the rate level at which the service will be charged. For example, to charge the service at each employee's rate level 1, enter "L1" at column 43. To charge a flat rate, rather than a fee rate level, enter the hourly rate, preceded by a "$". For example, if the service is to be charged at $70 per hour, regardless of who does the work on it, enter "$70" at column 43. If a line has a charge rate at the end, that rate will be charged for any service whose Description (entered in the SER- VICES/FEES module) BEGINS with the corresponding abbreviation. The charge rates contained in this file take precedence over any that would otherwise apply to a rendered service IF (and only if) the service Description BEGINS with the abbreviation to which the charge rate applies. 60 Sec.11.B AREAS OF BUSINESS The M-LBAREA.DAT file supplied by Integra contains a listing of the areas of business. You should edit this file to fit your needs. It should consist of no more than 24 lines (make sure that no blank lines remain at the end of the file). Each line may be up to 77 characters long and must end with a carriage RETurn. Unlike the M- LBCODE.DAT file, you are not required to line up certain information within M-LBAREA.DAT. Use EDIT.COM (^E, pressed when the MAIN MENU is displayed) to set up this file. In EDIT.COM, select the (O)ther option, and enter "M-LBAREA.DAT" as the name of the file to edit. Sec.11.C NUMBERING SYSTEM PROPOSAL The best numbering system is one that allows you to easily re- member each case or account number. It is recommended that such a number consist of the first four or five letters from the client's last name and the first two or three letters from his first. Under this system, the case number for the first case you handle for John Smith would be SMITJO1. Mr. Smith's second case would be SMITJO2. Also decide upon a consistent pattern for numbering your accounts. It is recommended that you begin the number of each account belonging to the same class of accounts with the same short alphanumeric se- quence. For instance, you could begin all accounts pertaining to the firm's assets with "A-" (eg: "A-BIGSOFA"). You could start the num- bers of all accounts payable with "P-" (eg: "P-AT&T"). All client accounts (such as trusts and retainers) could begin with "C-" (eg: "C-SMITJO1"), and so, on. If you follow a consistent pattern in numbering accounts, you will be able to sort through your records during (H)unts for partic- ular categories of accounts. To find all records pertaining to ANY asset, for instance, you would define the Account Number Hunt Gate as "A-". When you pressed F6 to begin the hunt, ManageX would find all records pertaining to the A-BIGSOFA, A-TYPWRT#1, A-CHAIR#1, etc., accounts, but it would not find anything on the C-SMITJO1 account. Of course, if you had carelessly named a client account something like "C-SMITPA-1", it would also be picked up in the hunt for phys- ical asset account information, since it would also contain the char- acter sequence, "A-". Try to limit the use of hyphens and other delimiters (such as "/",":", and ",") to character sequences at the beginning of account numbers. You may establish sub-categories of accounts. If, for instance, you wanted furniture to be a subcategory of assets ("A-", remember?), you could begin all such accounts with "FA-" (where "F" is for "fur- niture" and "A" is for "assets"). Equipment might be in the "EA-" category. A hunt for all accounts containing "A-" would find FA- BIGSOFA, FA-CHAIR, EA-TYPWRT#1, and A-GENERAL, among others (since each of those "numbers" contains "A-"). But if you wanted to hunt for only "FA-" accounts, then only the FA-BIGSOFA and FA-CHAIR ac- counts would be found. 61 SECTION 12. USING MANAGEX WITH OLD CASES AND ACCOUNTS If you intend to use ManageX with cases or accounts that were opened before you obtained ManageX, you will have to enter their data into ManageX's files. You should set up the records for these ac- counts and cases in the same manner as for your new ones. Like- wise, you should enter transactions just as you do with your new ones. Treat them in every respect in the manner that you treat your new accounts and cases, except as described below. Normally, when ManageX prepares a bill, it will include a bal- ance brought forward from the preceding month. However, when you FIRST BEGIN using the program, its data base will contain no informa- tion about what the balance was at the end of the last month (or ANY information at all, for that matter). The first transaction you enter for each case, therefore, should be an ADJUSTMENT. If the client owes you money, the adjustment should be a CHARGE; if you owe him money, it should be a WRITE-OFF. In either case, the adjust- ment's description should be something like, "Balance prior to compu- terized billing." The first bill prepared will contain this adjust- ment, instead of the usual "balance-forward" line (which will be found on subsequent bills). Previously-opened accounts also need to be opened with ManageX. Go to the ACCOUNTS module and (M)ake a deposit for each such account. When ManageX says that that account does not exist, press "O" (to Open the account). Then enter a deposit in the amount of the current account balance. That's all there is to it. If, for some reason, there is a negative balance in an account, you will have to enter it as a withdrawal (and elect to "(^W)ithdraw anyway" when ManageX tells you that the maximum withdrawal allowed is zero). 62 SECTION 13. MESSAGES Following are many of the messages which ManageX may give you. Only the least obvious messages are included, and they are arranged, as well as possible, in alphabetical order. Sec.13.A "Aborting because [hard disk] is full" There is no more room on the hard disk for the information that ManageX is attempting to write to it. Therefore, the attempt to write that data has been aborted. Whatever new record or file data has just been prepared has been lost because there is no place to store it. Your problem is that you have too much information on the hard disk. The solution is to remove that information which is no longer needed. More likely, you have allowed a build-up of unneeded data which should have been omitted long ago. Look through your case records. Do you really need to continue tracking all of them? If not, omit those you no longer need to follow. Of course, you should make sure that you have archive copies of all data before you omit them. Also check your accounts and employee records, omitting those which are no longer needed. If you feel that you cannot omit any ManageX data, you should exit the program and review files kept on the hard disk's other subdirectories. Perhaps some of those files can be transferred to archive floppies and then deleted from the hard disk. Sec.13.B "Acceptable master record [number] does not exist" You have attempted to assign, as a masterRcrd, a case which does not exist on the hard disk. Before you subordinate any case to a masterRcrd, you must first have created the master. If you are attempting to set up a "client" record, it will act as its OWN master. Therefore, its masterRcrd and Case Number must be identical. Then, when you set up that master's subordinate cases, each will have its own individual CASE number, but you will assign each a masterRcrd number identical to THIS record's masterRcrd num- ber. Sec.13.C "Account [account #] is not on disk -- (O)pen it or RET" You are trying to make a transaction for an account that does not reside on the hard disk. If you need to open a new account in order to make the transaction, press "O". If you do not want to open the account, just press RET. This message may also occur for an account which DOES exist, if that account has not yet been assigned a name. Use the (E)dit option in the ACCOUNT menu to rename the account. 63 Sec.13.D "Account, other than...to be credited/debited" While (M)aking a disbursement or receipt, you have not selected a category that causes ManageX to make an automatic account trans- action (by listing an account number in the M-LBCODE.DAT file on the same line as the category number). However, you have the program customized to expect two accounts to be designated for deposits/with- drawals whenever a receipt or disbursement is entered. One such account has already been provided. ManageX simply needs to know the second. If you don't want to bother with a double entry, just press ESC. Sec.13.E "Are there cases subordinate to this one (if so, do not omit)?" You should not omit a master that has a subordinate case. To do so could cause those subordinates to be overlooked in some searches through the case file. If you are not SURE that there are NOT subordinates to the case you are trying to omit, answer "Y", and the omit tagging routine will be aborted. You may then find out whether there really are such subordinate cases by (H)unting for all cases with the masterRcrd number in question. If you still want to omit that master record, you should first assign a different masterRcrd number to its subor- dinates (in which case the FIRST of the present master record's sub- ordinates must be the new master). Sec.13.F "Cannot prepare such an early bill for [case name]" You are attempting to re-prepare a bill that was originally prepared quite long ago. ManageX does not have enough stored infor- mation to allow you to do so. Generally, you may re-prepare a bill that was originally sent as long as about a year ago, but this factor may vary, depending upon how many times you have prepared Actual Mailings for the case. You may not re-prepare the bill. Just press RET to skip over the case and proceed. This message will sometimes appear if you attempt to prepare a case's bill for a period earlier than the earliest data available for that case. The message will also sometimes appear if you attempt to prepare a bill for a period beginning more than about 10 months ago. ManageX will not prepare such old bills. Sec.13.G "Case not on disk ... " There are two possible causes of this message. The first is that the case number you have just entered cannot be found on the hard disk. If you inadvertently typed in the wrong number, you 64 should redesignate the case. The second possible cause of the message is that a transaction has been encountered which refers to a case not on the disk. This is probably a case which has been omitted from the CASES file, but which still has transactions which have not been omitted. Just press RET. Sec.13.H "Category [category #] has no automatic account..." An automatic account transaction has already been made for the account whose number you entered when you began this batch of dis- bursements or receipts. The amount of the transaction is the amount of the latest disbursement or receipt just entered. However, no balancing account entry has been made for double-entry purposes. The reason for this is that the line of the M-LBCODE.DAT file that con- tains the category number shown does not also have an account number item. If you are interested in keeping your books balanced, you must go to the ACCOUNTS module and enter a transaction which balances the one just made for the account which you entered when you began this batch. If the category number shown is zero, then you included no cate- gory number for the disbursement or receipt entry just made. If you want balanced books, you must still go to the ACCOUNTS module and make an entry for some account which balances the one ManageX has just made for the account entered when you began this batch. Sec.13.I "Desired Account Balance: ... Actual Balance: ... " You have made an entry which has brought the retainer account balance below the Minimum Acceptable Balance set when you opened the account. ManageX is just reminding you of this fact. You might want to request that your client send a payment to bring the account's balance up to the Desired level. If no such payment is made before the next bill, ManageX will automatically include such a request on the bill. Sec.13.J "End of file reached..." This message means that the end of the file through which a search is being conducted has been reached. If you were looking for a particular record, and it did not show up before the file end was reached, double-check your parameters (or gates) for the search. Make sure that you are checking the appropriate date range and that you are in the appropriate module. If you are searching for a spe- cific record in either the ADJUSTMENT or the RECEIPTS module, and you cannot locate it, try the other module (adjustment and receipt re- cords are kept in the same file). Sec.13.K "First case to be processed (if not the first one in the file)" This message occurs whenever you are preparing bills for ALL cases in the file. You would normally elect to begin the bill pre- 65 paration with the first case in the file. To do so, just press RET. If, however, you wish to start with a case other than the first one, you may enter its number here. This feature is handy if your printer has malfunctioned in the middle of bill preparation. When the prob- lem is fixed, and you are ready to resume the bill preparation, you would not want to start all over. You would just enter the case number of the case where the malfunction occurred, and ManageX would begin the bill preparation with that case (or with its masterRcrd). Sec.13.L "Improbable date, since..." Today's date cannot fall before the month in which fell the last date that ManageX was used. It also cannot fall beyond 28 days fol- lowing the last date used. To allow such anomalies could cause ManageX's file updating procedure to produce errors. You must insure that files are created for every month that ManageX has been in use. If more than 28 days really HAVE elapsed since the last use, you should first enter a date falling within that 28-day period. This will allow files for that month to be created and updated, even though you may not intend to make entries into them. Sec.13.M "IO error" Error F0 -- There is not enough disk space for the file you are trying to make or expand. Error F1 -- You have probably designated a disk drive that does not exist. If the program has aborted, re-enter it, and try your entry again. Another possible problem may be that you have too many files on your disk. If this is the case, you will have to eliminate some of them (but be sure to make archive copies first). Sec.13.N "[date] is an unacceptable date" You have used the wrong format for a date entry, or the date you have entered is out of ManageX's acceptable range. Try using the "Da Mon Yr" format (eg: enter 15 December 1987 as "15 Dec 87") or the "Mon Yr" format ("Dec 87"). Sec.13.O "Master record [number] does not exist" The case you have specified for this service or fee refers to a masterRcrd which does not exist. You have probably omitted that masterRcrd from the hard disk. Do not continue with this service or fee entry until you find out what happened to that masterRcrd. Just press F6 and then go to the Case (E)dit mode to see if you can find the case number specified as being missing. If you cannot find it, you will have to (M)ake it or change the reference to it in each case record which refers to it as a master. Sec.13.P "Maximum withdrawal: [amount] -- press RET or (^W)ithdraw anyway" You have attempted to withdraw more from an account than is 66 contained therein. ManageX is reminding you that doing so will result in a negative balance. If you wish to withdraw the amount anyway, press ^W; otherwise press RET. The account's current balance is displayed as the amount. Sec.13.Q "month is wrong" You have entered a date containing a month which does not exist. Make sure that you use only the first three letters of the month's name. Alternatively, you have entered a date for a month whose files are not open. Go back to a menu and again start the procedure which resulted in the message. Sec.13.R "No Paper writing device PRN" This message is from DOS, not ManageX. Make sure that your printer has paper and that it is set to print. Then press "R" (for Retry). Sec.13.S "No such code" This message is caused for one of two reasons. First, you may have just entered a backslash, which causes ManageX to look for an abbreviation. If an abbreviation matching the characters just pre- ceding the backslash is not found, this messasge will occur. Second, you may have entered an expense or income code that does not exist. Sec.13.T "Retainer limit ... Billable+NonBillable this month ..." This note reminds you that this service or fee will cause the total service/fee charges for the month to exceed the monthly re- tainer limit set in this case's record. Since the limit has been exceeded, you are free to charge the client for your work. If you wish to charge the case for this transaction, you should enter the amount to be charged and finish the entry with a ^C (for 'charge') instead of the usual RET. Sec.13.U "See Statement Re-preparation Instructions" You must re-prepare bills for months subsequent to the month just billed. See "Statement Repreparation" in the BILLS section of these instructions. Sec.13.V "(T)ag an account for omission, or (O)mit tagged accounts" You have pressed ^O while in the TRUST MENU. ManageX now needs to know whether you wish to tag a single account for future omission or whether you wish to actually omit all the accounts previously tagged for omission. 67 Sec.13.W "That Code is not assigned" You have attempted to designate an employee code that has not been assigned to an employee. Make sure that your employee file contains an employee with that code. Sec.13.X "That record is not in [MonYr] [record type] file" You have designated a record number greater than the largest one in the file. Sec.13.Y "The master record cannot, itself, have a masterRcrd" You have attempted to assign to a case a masterRcrd which, it- self, looks to yet another record as its master. This is not al- lowed. A record which is, itself, subordinate to another may not be a masterRcrd. Sec.13.Z "This item cannot be changed..." Certain items may not be changed in the Hunt mode. Try making the change in the Edit mode. Even in the edit mode, though, there may be an item that cannot be changed, in which case the only re- course is to negate the effect of that record by (^O)mitting it and then (M)aking a new one with the proper data. In particular, you may never change a Case Number in the CASES MODULE. To allow you to do so would potentially leave "in limbo" several transactions (services, disbursements, etc.) that had been linked to that case. Sec.13.AA "TO DATE: Srvc/Fees ..." This message appears at the bottom of the screen when entering a service or fee. You are being told some of the TOTALS accumulated TO DATE (not including the record presently being entered) for this case. This status report may be useful for determining whether you wish to charge the client for the service you are currently entering. Sec.13.BB "To Depst/Wdrw this [amount] to/from ANOTHER acct..." If you wish to keep your books balanced, you will want to make a transaction entry to balance the one you have just made. If so, enter the account to be affected by the balancing transaction, and then an- swer the next questions that appear on the screen. This prompt (and your answer to it) will keep you from forgetting to make balancing transactions. If you don't care about making such an entry, just press RET when this prompt appears. Sec.13.CC "Too many records in [file type] file" The record you are attempting to create would take the total number of records of that type over the maximum which ManageX can follow. 68 Sec.13.DD "Too many accounts; omit unneeded ones -- press RET" The account you are attempting to create would take the total number of accounts over the maximum which ManageX can follow. You should press RET and then tag for omission all accounts which are no longer active. Then you should (^O)mit the tagged accounts from the ACCOUNTS MENU. Sec.13.EE "Total Srvc/Fee Max: ... To date: ... This charge adjusted to" The service or fee you have just entered brings the total ser- vices and fees charged to this case over the "Total Srvc/Fee Max" established in the this case's record. In order to prevent this maximum from being exceeded, ManageX has adjusted the charge for this service or fee to the greatest amount which will not cause the maxi- mum to be violated. If you wish to override the program's automatic protection against accidental overcharging, you may do so by enter- ing the amount you wish to charge and ending the entry with a ^C (for 'charge') instead of the usual RET. If you wish to change the "Total Srvc/Fee Max" for this case, you will have to go to the CASE module and edit this case's record. Sec.13.FF "Write fault error writing device PRN -- Abort, Retry, Ignore" This message is given by DOS, not by ManageX. You are being told that the computer is trying to send something to the printer, but that the printer, for some reason is not accepting it. You are offered the three choices of Aborting, Retrying, and Ignoring. Insure that your printer is on, that paper is inserted, and that it is properly set to print. Then press "R" (for Retry). The compu- ter will again try to send the data to the printer. If the same message reappears, recheck your printer setup and press "R" again. Use the Ignore and Abort options only as a last resort, since they may result in the program's aborting. Sec.13.GG "You must re-do [case number] bills ..." Subsequent to your having prepared the cited case's bill for a particular period, you have changed some transaction data which would affect that period's bill (as well as bills for subsequent periods). You must, therefore, re-prepare a bill for all periods whose balances might be affected by the change(s). BEGIN WITH THE BILL FOR THE MONTH WHOSE DATE IS MENTIONED IN THE MESSAGE, AND DO EACH SUCCESSIVE MONTH (or other regular billing period) IN TURN. Of course, if you have not already sent bills for those periods, you may ignore this prompt. 69 Sec.13.HH "You want this amount to be greater than the outstanding advances?" You are trying to allocate toward outstanding advances a portion of your receipt which is larger than the current advance balance. This will normally result in a negative current outstanding advance balance. An exception to this rule may occur if you are correcting an old receipt record, but you should usually avoid allocating any- thing exceeding the current advance balance. The advance balance shown is always the current (latest) bal- ance. It may not be the pertinent balance if you are correcting an old receipt record, since, in that case, you would be more interested in what the advance balance was at the time the record was originally entered. If you are editing an old record, you might see fit to exceed the current balance. If you answer "N", the your allocation will not be accepted. If you press "Y", it will. Sec.13.II "You want to use the open/close toggle?" You have pressed ^C while in the Case Edit mode. ^C opens or closes a case. If you intended to press ^C, and you want to open or close the case, press the "Y" key; otherwise, press "N", and ManageX will store that case's information as it now stands and take you back to the CASE MENU.