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MotelMAX the Hotel, Motel and Resort Manager Series 400 - February 1998 MKM Software PO Box 590932 Houston, Texas 77259-0932 USA Phone: 281-488-2436 Email: mkmware@ix.netcom.com Website: http://www.mkmware.com Copyright (c) MKM Software 1989-98 All rights reserved. _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 USA, FAX 616-788-2765 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. Table of Contents Introduction 3 MotelMAX PRO 3 Billeting Manager PRO 4 Definition of Shareware 4 Registration 4 Distribution 5 How to Register 5 MotelMAX - Version List 6 MotelMax Pre-Setup 6 Generally Speaking 6 Backup Your Data! 7 Disclaimer of Warranty 8 Installing MTLMAX.ZIP 8 Operations 9 Opening a Shift 9 Closing a Shift 9 User name and Password 9 Entering Reservations 9 <Ctrl-Ins> Quick Reservation 10 <Ins> New Reservation 10 <Alt-Ins> Clone 10 Reservation Browse Table 12 Reservations by Arrival 12 Update Reservations 12 Advance Deposits 12 MasterBills 13 Frmnt Desk - Folios 14 Front Desk Menu 14 Folios 14 DirectBill 14 WhoIsOn 14 Payments 14 Night Menu 14 Updating Folios 15 Transactions 16 Direct Bill Folios 16 Guest File 16 Reports 17 Re-Index 17 Re-build Availability Tables 18 MotelMAX Set-up 19 Site Setup 19 Room Types 20 Room Setups 20 AutoUpdate 21 Rate Tables 21 Rooms/Types 21 General Ledger 22 Folio Setup 22 MotelMAX User Guide Page: 1 Folio Headers 25 Taxes 25 Miscellaneous 26 Printer Set-up 28 User Names 28 Zip Codes 28 Reservation Codes 29 Travel Agents 29 MotelMAX User Guide Page: 2 Introduction MotelMAX is a complete Hotel, Motel, Bed & Breakfast and Resort Manager, providing modules for reservations, advance deposits, front desk, accounting, room inventory and many reports. This program is remarkably easy to use. It will help organize your work site like never before. It introduces uniformity in the way room rates are applied, guests are checked-in and checked out and it saves everything. You can always go back and reconstruct a period of activity to verify account totals or track business activity. In addition, powerful wordprocessing and mailing features let you create any kind of letter, confirmation or marketing, to facilitate communication with your customer base. The registered version of MotelMAX comes with a 150 page illustrated user guide. This file is an abbreviated version of the user guide. Please refer to the online help screens for the latest program information. Also, whenever the program requires input from the operator, there is always context sensitive help at the bottom of the screen. MotelMAX PRO MotelMAX has been updated to included extended features requested by MotelMAX users. You can update from MotelMAX to MotelMAX PRO. The PRO version installs over the standard version and automatically carries forward your data from the standard version into the PRO version. Following are some of the additional features you will find in MotelMAX PRO. o Enhanced Rate Tables. You can create new rate tables for special groups like: seniors, state employees, military and corporate rates. This lets PRO automatically rate a greater variety of reservations. o Additional Charges. You can add any kind of charge to a reservation at the reservation stage and print the folio. You can front load tours, meal packages, whatever at the reservation stage. o Events Calendar. You can setup one or more events on your events calendar. If any reservation arrival date or length of stay touches an event date, a message appears on the screen at the time of reservation advising the operator of special concerns, such as, `two night minimum' or `Saturday closed to arrival', etc. You create the message. o Call Tracking. Optional call tracking and call costing. MotelMAX User Guide Page: 3 Phone charges can be sent directly from your phone system to the guest folios. PRO will cost the phone charges as well based on phone rate tables you can design. o Additional Reports. More accounting reports have been added room revenue, average daily rate and revenue per available room. o Verify Room Status at Check-in. If you turn room status checking on, the system verifies whether the room is ready and available for check-in. For more information about MotelMAX PRO, visit our website or contact MKM Software for a demonstration version. Billeting Manager PRO For work sites and large scale billeting operations, ask us about Billeting Manager PRO. This program has separate features designed for these operations. We can likewise create custom versions of the program with reports and input screens designed to your specifications. Definition of Shareware MotelMAX (Standard Version) is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with others, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user- supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. Registration If you find this program useful and find that you are using MotelMAX and continue to use MotelMAX after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment of $135.00 to MKM Software. The $135.00 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Users of MotelMAX must register and pay for their copies of MotelMAX within 45 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by MotelMAX User Guide Page: 4 contacting MKM Software. Distribution Anyone distributing the Standard Version of MotelMAX for any kind of remuneration must first contact MKM Software for authorization. This authorization is automatically granted to distributors recognized by the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering MotelMAX immediately (However MKM Software must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to- date with the latest version of MotelMAX.). You are encouraged to pass a copy of the Standard Version of MotelMAX along to others for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users receive a personalized copy of the latest version of the program without any shareware notices, a printed, illustrated user manual and 90 days of free technical support. Registered users are kept apprised of program updates and additional programs that can be used to generate reports and analyze and graph current and past business data. How to Register You can register or purchase any version of MotelMAX directly through MKM Software if you pay by MasterCard, Visa or Check. For a credit card purchase (MasterCard, Visa, American Express, or Discover) contact Public (software) Library at the numbers listed below. These numbers are for registering any version of MotelMAX or for ordering the latest shareware version. Public (software) Library cannot provide program information or product support for MotelMAX. Contact MKM Software for information about dealer pricing, volume discounts, site licensing, the status of shipment of the product, the latest version number or for technical information. To Register by Check or for Technical Support, contact: MKM Software P.O. Box 590932 Houston TX 77259-0932 Phone: 281-488-2436 Email: mkmware@ix.netcom.com Website: http://www.mkmware.com You can register by credit card using either American MotelMAX User Guide Page: 5 Express, Discover, Mastercard or Visa. Contact: Public (software) Library Toll free USA only - 800-242-4775 Fax: 713-524-6398 Voice: 713-524-6394 CompuServe: 71355,470 Be sure to provide your site name (max 35 characters) with your order so that your copy of MotelMAX can be stamped with your property name. MotelMAX - Version List MotelMAX comes in several versions depending on the number of rooms at your site. The Standard Version supports up to fifty rooms and is distributed as shareware. MotelMAX PRO which contains extended features is available only through MKM Software. Each version includes the modules for reservations and advance deposits. All amounts are in US currency. Include an additional charge for shipping and handling. MotelMAX Version List 50 rooms. $135 100 rooms. $175 101+ rooms. $250 Shipping US and Canada. $4 Shipping International. $11 For MotelMAX PRM or multiuser versions, contact MKM Software. MotelMax Pre-Setup The MotelMAX program can be ordered preset with your room types, rooms, rate tables, tax tables and optionally, your guest file. The setup fee is $75.00. You have to provide a list of room types, rooms, rate tables and tax rates. If you can provide a guest file in ascii file format, we can preload the guests into the MotelMAX prmgram for you. This can save a lot of typing. Generally Speaking When using MotelMAX, there are some simple constants that apply throughout the program. Pressing <Enter> takes you one step forward. Pressing the <Esc> key takes you one step back to where you were. Pressing <Esc> several times always takes you back to the Main Menu and the option to exit. MotelMAX User Guide Page: 6 Always, look to the bottom of the screen for help. This screen area displays the available commands, options, hotkeys and context sensitive help. When MotelMAX needs to get information from you, it displays a pop-up box or window, hereafter, referred to as an edit window. When you enter data in an edit window, always exit the window by pressing <Enter> or <PgDn>. This guarantees the information just entered is properly saved. If you exit an edit window by pressing <Esc>, your entries are not saved. Exit the MotelMAX program by pressing the <Esc> key enough times to take you back to the Main Menu. There you can press <Esc> again or you can select the option Quit. This is the correct way to exit the program. All your data is saved. Please do not turn off your computer or reboot the computer while you are in the MotelMAX program. This may cause loss of data and other problems, but not necessarily. If this should happen or, for example, there is a power failure while you are using the program, next time you run MotelMAX, start the program with the command: MotelMAX NEW <Enter> The NEW start switch causes MotelMAX to check all data files to ensure they are in good condition, however, it does not recover any lost data. Next, move to the Utility Menu and select the option to Optimize. This is a double check of all files. Your best guard against lost data is to back up your data often. The above remarks apply to using any computer program. Backup Your Data! The registered version of MotelMAX includes built in functions to backup and restore MotelMAX data files. Whenever you close a shift, a prompt appears asking whether you want to backup your data files. If you answer yes, the program prompts you to enter a diskette in drive A or B and the backup procedure begins. We strongly recommend backing up your data on a regular basis, that is, at the close of every shift. MotelMAX compresses data files during the backup. If the total size of the backup file is too large to fit on one diskette, the program prompts you for a second diskette. This is a high speed backup procedure. Because it is simple and automatic it invites the operator to take advantage of this feature at the close of each shift, making it part of a daily routine. MotelMAX User Guide Page: 7 Disclaimer of Warranty Users of MotelMAX must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "MotelMAX is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of MotelMAX." Installing MTLMAX.ZIP The entire MotelMAX program and documentation are zipped up into a single file called MTLMAX.ZIP. To install the program, you will have to unzip this file, using the popular file compression program PkZip v2.04g. You will need the file PKUNZIP.EXE from the PkZip program. This program is available from most bulletin boards and online services. For this sample installation, we will install MotelMAX in a directory called \MOTEL. You can choose any directory name that you prefer. The entire MotelMAX program and all files are stored in a single directory. There are no subdirectories and as stated above the directory name does not matter. Place the installation diskette in drive A: and at the C: prompt, enter these DOS commands. We assume PKUNZIP.EXE is in your DOS path. C:\=>MD \MOTEL <Enter> C:\=>CD \MOTEL <Enter> C:\MOTEL=>PKUNZIP A:MTLMAX <Enter> C:\MOTEL=>MOTELMAX <Enter> MotelMAX User Guide Page: 8 Operations Opening a Shift MotelMAX breaks all usage of the program into segments or shifts. When you sign-on to the program, if a shift is not opened, MotelMAX will prompt you for a username and password to open a new shift. Once a shift is opened, all accounting activity is tracked and logged on to the shift report. Shift reports provide a way of tracking accounting data and transactions independent of the transaction date. You cannot access the program unless you either open a shift or sign-on after a shift has been opened by you or by someone else. Closing a Shift When an operator exits the program he has the option to close the current shift. Normally, the answer is Yes. At this point the program indicates what the closing cash drawer amount should be based on payments received or refunds given. It is the responsibility of the operator to balance the cash receipts and cash drawer with the shift report and turn in the amount and shift report summary of shift activity. User name and Password Whenever you sign on to MotelMAX and open a shift you have to enter a valid user name and password. For the shareware version of the program enter: Username: MOTELMAX <Ent> Password: MOTELMAX <Ent> Entering Reservations Every guest that checks-in to your site must first have a reservation. This applies to guests that walk-in and need a room right away and to guests that book days, weeks or months in advance. The reservation process ensures that a room of the appropriate type is available and that sufficient information is recorded about the room and the guest to correctly book the room. Once a reservation is booked, it is stored in a table called the Reservation Browse Table. There are three ways to enter a reservation from the Reservation Browse Table. Each method is designed to efficiently manage the booking process for different MotelMAX User Guide Page: 9 situations that can arise. Typically, when a guest suddenly appears at the front desk for a room late at night, the booking process is different than in cases where someone is booking a room by telephone for an arrival date in the distant future. Here are the three reservation booking methods, each designed to accommodate a different situation: <Ctrl-Ins> Quick Reservation This reservation method is designed for first time guests and for walk-ins. One simple form appears on the screen. Fill in the appropriate information for each entry on the form and this new reservation is added to the Reservation Browse Table. This is the easiest and fastest way to enter a new reservation. You can enter a new reservation in less than 10 seconds. Once the reservation is booked, you can choose to print a check-in form by pressing <F7><C> and have the guest complete their address information, or press <F4> to check-in the guest, or press <Shift-F4> to check-in the guest, post a payment and print the guest folio at the same time. While this reservation method is designed for walk- ins, you can enter any valid arrival date. If the guest is a repeat guest, do not use this method because then the guest is entered twice in the guest file. MotelMAX is designed so that a guest is entered just once and on each return visit, the guest information is re-used. This makes it possible to accumulate guest histories and statistics. <Ins> New Reservation This reservation method is designed for repeat guests. The important difference is this guest has already stayed at your site. The name and address information for this guest is already on file. Do not re-enter this guest, rather re- use the information you have to book this guest again. The reservation form prompts you to enter a portion of the guest's last name. Next, search the guest file and select this guest. Information from the guest's last stay such as room type, room number and rate type are automatically inserted in the reservation form to assist in the reservation process. This method guards against entering the same guest twice into your guest file. If you are mistaken and the guest is not in the guest file, you can add them and then select them. <Alt-Ins> Clone Sometimes a guest may want to book several rooms under his name. Use one of the first two methods above to enter the first reservation. Now place the cursor on that reservation and press <Alt-Ins>. MotelMAX copies or clones this MotelMAX User Guide Page: 10 reservation. You only have to add the new room number for the second new reservation. We assume the arrival date, number of nights and guest name are the same, although you can changes these if you like. Using this method, you can very quickly book several rooms for the same guest. Later you can edit and alter these reservations as needed but for the initial booking, this is a fast and easy way to get the rooms reserved. Once a reservation is booked, it is added to the Reservation Browse Table. The remainder of this chapter describes how to use this browse table. Reservation Browse Table MotelMAX lets you enter reservations up to two years in advance and to accept one or more advance deposits for a reservation. All reservations are listed in a browse table. The browse table can be sorted several different ways. The default sort order is by arrival date. The browse table is one of the most important tools in MotelMAX. In practically all portions of the program, information is first presented or displayed in a browse table format, so once you learn to navigate the browse table you are well on your way to understanding how to use MotelMAX. There are two ways to view the Reservation Browse Table. The method you choose depends on the circumstances. When you select the option Reservations from the Main Menu, the drop down menu displays these two choices for viewing reservations. Reservations by Arrival This version of the Reservation Browse Table includes reservations for any given arrival date. The default display includes reservations arriving today and the browse table title includes the percentage of occupancy the arrival date on display. The reservations are sorted by the guest's last name and as you check-in a guest, their entry is removed from the table. This offers a useful display of how many more check-in's are due for the given date and with the percentage of occupancy available you have some indication of whether more rooms are available. It is easy to change the date filter for this table. Simply press <Tab> and select a new date from the calendar. The MotelMAX User Guide Page: 11 browse table display is refreshed to include the reservations for the new date and the percentage of occupancy is updated in the browse table title. This browse table is ideally suited to checking-in the daily arrivals, but you can likewise add new reservations to the table. If you add a new reservation, the arrival date of the new reservation becomes the new browse table filter date. The table is refreshed with a new display and the browse table title is updated with the percentage of occupancy. Update Reservations This brmwse table is comprised of all pending reservations. It contains all the hotkeys of the previous browse table and more. The remainder of this chapter is a detailed explanation the browse table content and the various options you can use to process reservations. Advance Deposits An important feature of MotelMAX is the ability to track advance deposits for a reservation. When you press <F5> on the reservation browse table, a separate browse table is displayed for advance deposits. One or more deposits can be added to a reservation. Once you add a deposit, post it using the <Tab> key or the <Gray+> key. You can delete a deposit, if it is not posted by pressing the <Delete> key. You can add another deposit by pressing <Insert>. These are familiar commands from other browse tables as you will see. Once a deposit is posted, you cannot delete it. Instead, you have to refund it using the <F6> key. All deposit browse table commands are displayed at the bottom of the screen. When you refund a deposit, MotelMAX prompts you for a forfeit amount. This is a penalty fee you might assess against the guest for cancelling the reservation. This is an option. Once you establish a forfeit amount and a refund amount, MotelMAX creates a folio with these transactions automatically added and posted. You have to access the FrontDesk option on the Main Menu to print and close the Deposit Refund Folio. If a reservation has just one remaining posted deposit, and this deposit is refunded, MotelMAX automatically cancels and deletes the original reservation. Availability tables are updated accordingly. MotelMAX User Guide Page: 12 MasterBills This feature exists primarily for group bookings. But it has other uses as well. A typical use is as follows. A business group checks-in. The company pays all room charges, but each guest must pay all other charges. Create a MasterBill which will be paid by the company. Transfer all room charges for the group to the MasterBill folio and leave the remaining charges on each guest's individual folio. Unlike other folios, a MasterBill is not attached to a particular room so you cannot add new room charges to it. If you have to modify the amount of room charges on a MasterBill, add a room adjustment transaction. While you cannot add a room charges to the MasterBill, you can transfer any kind of transaction to the MasterBill from another guest folio, making it very flexible. MotelMAX User Guide Page: 13 Front Desk - Folios Guest Folios can be accessed through the Main Menu option; FrontDesk. After a guest has been checked-in from the reservation browse table, this is the area of the program where you perform all changes to the folio right up to check- out time. Front Desk Menu The Front Desk Menu includes these options: Folios Access current folios for current checked-in guest. This option is the main topic of this chapter and the next. Use this option to browse through the current checked-in guest. You can select any folio and perform a variety of actions, including adding, editing, deleting or posting transactions. Also, it is here that you access folios in order to check- out a guest. DirectBill Access folios for guests who have checked-out but whose folio is not paid. A separate chapter is devoted to Direct Bill folios. This option accesses a separate browse table comprised only of DirectBill folios. These folios can be edited or checked-out just like folios for current guests. WhoIsOn Display information about the current shift and MotelMAX version information. This is useful information to quickly determine the status of the current shift. Payments Display a list of all payments received during the current shift. This report should be run prior to the close of a shift. It can be used by the front desk operator to confirm that credit card receipts and cash totals match those in the computer before the operator actually closes the shift. Night Menu This is a special option containing features that help prepare folios for the next business day. These features include: o Batch Input of Charges. Queue up a batch or group of MotelMAX User Guide Page: 14 like charges. Then press one key and have MotelMAX update the appropriate folios automatically. This is an excellent device for adding phone charges from your call accounting system, for example. It is much faster and more convenient than updating each folio individually. o AutoPost. Automatically, post all pending unposted charges through today's date. Prior to 3:00 pm this feature does not post today's room charges as the screen message will indicate. This is a precaution in case a current guest should decide to check-out early. After 3:00 pm all pending charges, including room charges are posted. Payments are not posted. These should be posted manually by the operator at the time they are added to the folio. You can run this option as often as is necessary. It will count the number of folios checked and the number of charges posted and display the results. o Daily Posts. Display a list of all folios and the posted charges and payments for each folio through a given date. Depending on the number of current guests, you may want to run this report prior to an AutoPost. You definitely want to run it after an AutoPost. This report should be turned in by the night front desk operator to affirm all folios have been prepared for the next business day. It permits you to verify folios are properly updated without having to access and view each folio individually. o Daily Activity Report. This report contains a snapshot of the daily activity at your site. For each room, it lists the folio number and name of the person arriving, staying over or departing each room. It also records the number of persons staying in each room and on the entire property. For each guest, it indicates how many nights they have stayed and how many more nights they intend to stay. If printed everyday, this report is an excellent record of activity at your site on a day by day basis. o Daily Room Revenue. This report is designed to give a precise record of room charges and room adjustments posted for any given date, shift or month number range. The report prints an itemized list of all room charges and adjustments for the given range. It includes a total number of room nights and the total revenue posted. Finally, it calculates the average daily rate for the given range. Rooms designated as room type <0> are not included in the report since these rooms are considered inactive. You will probably want to run this report at the end of each day to review all room charges and room adjustments posted. Updating Folios MotelMAX User Guide Page: 15 All current open folios for checked-in guests are listed in a browse table. The browse table of current folios can be sorted in several ways. The default sort order is by room number. This is the central point for working with folios of checked-in guests. From here you can update the individual folios and it is from here that you print, check- out or close all folios. Press the <F1> help key to access a full screen of online help. Also, press the <F7> View Menu to display all reports relating to folios. Transactions The transaction browse table contains an itemized listing of all folio transactions for a given guest and whether they have been posted. The transactions are sorted by transaction date with payments preceding charges within each date. Press the <F1> help key for a complete description of all available hotkeys and options. Direct Bill Folios Direct Bill Folios are folios that have been checked out but were not closed because the balance due was not equal to zero. We have extended this definition to include any unresolved folio. You can now send any checked-out folio to direct bill without regard to the balance due. This gives you many more possibilities. Also, you can now send a MasterBill folio to direct bill. This gives you the ability to combine one or more direct bill folios into one folio, again increasing the possibilities you have for organizing your records. When you send a <current> folio to direct bill, the folio is removed from the browse table of current guests so as not to clutter the screen. When you are looking at current guest folios that is all you want to see. In most cases, you need to post a final payment after which you can close and clear out the direct bill folio. You can add new charges, or print additional copies of the folio as needed, again, using the same keys you are familiar with from the browse table of current folios. However, you cannot add a new room charge to a direct bill folio. If it is necessary to add a room charge, use the charge option room adjustment instead. Guest File Your first introduction to the guest file occurs when you are booking reservations. You can attach a guest record to a reservation either at the beginning or end of the reservation process. Sometimes, however, you may want to access the guest file directly to lookup specific MotelMAX User Guide Page: 16 information about a current or previous guest or to prepare a promotional mailing. You can accomplish all this by selecting the option GuestFile from the Main Menu. A submenu appears with several including the option to Browse the guest file. Select this option to access a browse table of guests. You can create up to 3 user defined letters to send to any and all guests. Refer to the <F1> help key for more information. Also, press <F7> and view the sample guest letters. The sample letters provide instructions on how you can create your own letters. Postal Codes. When you are editing a guest entry and you enter a US zip code or Canadian postal code, MotelMAX checks if that code is in the zip/postal code file. If it is, you can choose to let the program stuff the city, state and optionally the country name for you. This feature can over time save you many keystrokes and likewise ensure uniformity of spelling and style in the adding of city, state, province or country names. Also, you can generate revenue reports by zip code. Reports MotelMAX contains powerful reporting capabilities. You can display reports to the screen and subsequently print them or save them to a file to load into your favorite word processing program. Press the <F1> key for help in viewing and printing reports. Report contents can be selected by date, shift number or month number. It is best to open and close several shifts before you begin to run all the reports, especially accounting reports. It helps to have more data in the program to run the reports. On the other hand, after you enter several reservations, move to the REPORTS; RESERVATIONS Menu and begin printing arrival reports and room racks. These are the first reports you will want to see. Again, wait until you close a few shifts before you run the accounting reports. Re-Index Index files are used by MotelMAX to quickly locate specific information. If the computer is switched off while the program is running; or, if there is a loss of power, these index files can be damaged. In such cases, you should rebuild all index files using this option. Under normal circumstances this is not necessary. MotelMAX will always MotelMAX User Guide Page: 17 update index files as needed. This option is made available as a precaution. Once a week, run the option to <Optimize> your files. This can improve program performance. Re-build Availability Tables Use this option to re-build the room type and room number availability tables. Whenever you change your room set-ups, especially when you edit or delete room numbers, or room types, you may have changed a room number that is currently in use by a pending reservations. This can cause discrepancies in the room type and room number availability tables. However, this is very simple to correct. Simply run this option. All room type and room number availability tables are rebuilt starting from today and working through to the end of the tables. Please note, this option only affects reservations from today forward. It does change any past reservations. MotelMAX User Guide Page: 18 MotelMAX Set-up This menu contains all the options you need to set-up MotelMAX for use at your site. Work your way through these menu options to customize MotelMAX for your particular needs. Site Setup Select the option <S>ite to enter or edit your site address information. For each entry, refer to the bottom of the screen for context sensitive help. Here are some of the entries: o Site Name and Address. The site name is used on some reports and the address is used on the reservation confirmation letter. o DateFormat. Select a date format familiar to you. MotelMAX uses the date format set for your computer by your DOS country setting. o Printer Type. Select the kind of printer you have from a picklist. Press <Tab> to access the list. If your printer is not on the list, add it using the `Printer Set- up' option. o Printer Port. You printer port is probably 1. o Print Override. Normally, you want to answer No. However, some printers report a printer status of <Not Ready> when, in fact, that is not the case. This option tells MotelMAX to ignore the Printer Status and print the report. o Event Alert. Enter <Y>es to make the Events Calendar active. If the events calendar is active, each time a reservationist books a reservation that touches a defined event day on the Events Calendar, the event message is displayed. Enter <N>o to make the Events Calendar alert inactive. This is a feature of the Pro version. o Reservation Lag Days. You can choose to allow reservations to be booked with an arrival date <X> number of days ago. This is useful if you want to key in older reservations. Enter a number from 1 to 45. If you enter 45, this means you can book a reservation today that has an arrival date as far back as 45 days ago. o Screen Timer. MotelMAX lets you put a screen timer on all browse tables and edit windows. It is not a good idea MotelMAX User Guide Page: 19 to start editing a guest or reservation and then walk away. Possibly on a network this record is inaccessible to another user. Set the screen timeout interval from 0 to 20 minutes. MotelMAX will automatically exit the current browse table or edit window after <X> minutes of inactivity. Enter <0> to turn the timer off, although we do not recommend this. We suggest the default setting of 3 minutes. o Backup Drive. Indicate which diskette drive you want to use for backing up your data. As stated earlier. The backup process is fully automated. Once the operator starts a backup, the program assumes you are backing-up to this diskette drive. Enter A or B. Room Types Select the option Room <T>ypes to describe the different room types in use at your site. Room Type 0 is reserved for House Account - these are rooms that are not in service. All rooms described as room type 0 will not be included in the calculation of percentage of occupancy. You do not have to enter the number of rooms per room type since the program does this for you. To complete this option you need to enter: o # Room Type in Use. Enter the number of room types you are using not including room type 0. o Brief Code. For each room type, enter a short, four character description. This code is used on browse tables and reports to describe the room type when space is limited. Some examples might be: STND, DLX, STE. o Description. For each room type, enter a long description. This description is used on reports where space is not a concern. Some examples might be: Standard, Deluxe, Suite, Suite with Kitchen. Room Setups Select option <R>ooms to set-up the individual rooms for your site. MotelMAX comes preset with 35 rooms so you can get started right away. However, you will want to begin adding your own rooms as you go along; or, you might want to simply edit the preset rooms and change the room numbers to match your own. A browse table of all rooms is presented on the screen. It works like all browse tables. Highlight the room you want to change and press <Enter>. Or press <Delete> to delete the currently highlighted room. If you want to add a new MotelMAX User Guide Page: 20 room, press <Insert> or preferably use <Alt-Insert> to Clone a room. AutoUpdate Select the option Auto<U>pdate after you have defined your Room Types and after you have entered the individual room setups. MotelMAX verifies everything is correct. Also, the number of rooms in use are counted and the number of rooms per room type. You can see the number of rooms on the site setup display. Return to the Room Type setup screen to verify the total number of room per room type. Rate Tables Select this option to setup your Rate Tables. MotelMAX automatically assigns room rates based on rate tables you create. These rates are calculated at the time of reservation. Room rates are re-calculated if you edit a reservation and again when a guest checks-in. If your rate tables have been updated since the time of reservation and before the time of check-in, the new room rates are applied to the folio at check-in time. You can access the MotelMAX rate tables by selecting the following options from the Main Menu: Utilities | Set-Up | Site Set-Up | A. The familiar browse table is displayed. This browse table is comprised of the Rate Table Headers. There are two entries in the browse table that are fixed and cannot be changed. These entries are the Assigned Daily Rate and Flat Rate. Each of these rates are user defined at the time of reservation. A third entry in the Rate Table Headers is a sample rate table called Normal Rates. This table is provided as an example to illustrate how to construct rate table on your own. Place the cursor on the entry called Normal Rates and press the <F4> key. This allows access to the individual Rates on the Normal Room Rate Table. Press <Escape> to return to the Rate Table Header Browse Table. It is very easy now to begin building your own rate tables. From the Rate Table Header Browse Table, press <Insert> to create a new Rate Table Header. Once you create the table header, you can highlight that table and press <F4> to begin adding the individual rates for the new rate table. Rooms/Types Use this option to access the room type availability table. This table records room use by room type and calculates the MotelMAX User Guide Page: 21 percentage of occupancy on a daily basis. If you want to have these numbers reflected accurately, you must enter the correct number of rooms per room type for your site. MotelMAX does this for you. After you enter all your room types and individual rooms. Select the AutoUpdate option. MotelMAX counts the number of rooms per room type and inserts the correct values on this table. This ensures a correct daily occupancy percentage. General Ledger View the general ledger and current amounts for each ledger account. MotelMAX lets you define the exact payment and charge accounts that you want. You can make an account active by entering a Menu Key code, and by deleting a menu key code, the account will become inactive and will not appear as a selection on menus. Accounts are never deleted, you simply switch them off or on as needed. The account labels and account numbers are fixed, but most of the account descriptions can be customized. All accounts are presented in the familiar browse table. Refer to the bottom of the screen for help messages, or press <F1> for a full screen of online help. Folio Setup This option lets you control the folio printout. You can customize the folio to appear the way you want by changing the page length or changing the location and font size of your site name. The default page length format for folios is 8.5 by 11 inch paper. However, you can change this. If you are using preprinted forms on 8.5 by 5.5 inch paper, you can easily adjust the program to handle these forms, using the options described below: o Currency Symbol. Enter the currency sign or symbol used in your country. The currency symbol can be up to four characters in length. You can use upper or lower case characters. o Place Symbol <B>efore or <A>fter Amounts. Indicate whether the currency symbol should be printed <B>efore or <A>fter the amount. o Group Daily Room Charges as one Entry. The default is <N>o. A guest staying for five nights has five separate room charges printed on the folio. However, if you choose <Y>es, room charges are bundled within the same month. A guest staying for five nights has one room charge for five nights printed on the folio. This can substantially change MotelMAX User Guide Page: 22 the appearance of the folio for long term guests. However, if a guest arrives on March 28, staying for 5 nights, the program makes two entries, one for 3 days in March and one for 2 days in April. Charges are bundled within the same calendar month. o Folio Length in Lines. Set the length in lines for your folio printout. The default is 48 for 8.5 by 11 inch forms. If you are using special forms, increase or decrease this number until you get the results you want. If you are using 8.5 by 5.5 inch forms, 24 lines should work correctly. o Set Site Name Font On. Enter the printer Escape Sequence that turns emphasized printing <ON>. For example, on an Epson printer, you can turn emphasized printing on by entering this printer code: \027E. On a laser printer, you may want to switch to a different font or larger point size to enhance the appearance of the site name on the folio printout. Leave this entry blank if you prefer to print the site name in the normal print style or font. o Set Site Name Font Off. Enter the printer Escape Sequence that turns emphasized printing <OFF>. For example, on an Epson impact printer, you can turn emphasized printing off by entering this printer code: \027F. If you are using a laser printer and you switched on a different font to print the site name, you now have to switch back to the original font to print the rest of the folio. Leave this entry blank if the previous entry on this form is blank. In short, if you turned a special printer font on in the previous entry, you must at this point turn that font off or set the font back to the original font. The entries you make here depend upon the kind of printer you are using and can be found in the user guide for your printer. If you are in doubt, leave this entry and the prior entry blank. o Set Folio Form Length On. If you are printing folios on specialized forms, enter the printer Escape Sequence that sets your printer to the correct page length. For example, on an Epson impact printer if you are using 8.5 by 5.5 inch forms, you have to set the printer page length to 33 lines. The correct printer Escape Sequence to accomplish this is: \027C\033. If you are using 8.5 by 11 inch forms, simply leave this entry blank. o Set Folio Form Length Off. If you set a special form length in the prior entry, you have to reset the form length to the normal size after printing the folio. On an Epson impact printer, if you set the form length to 33 lines per page for the folio in the previous entry, here you have to reset the lines per page to 66 (the normal lines per page MotelMAX User Guide Page: 23 for 8.5 by 11 inch paper) after printing the folio. The correct printer Escape Sequence for an Epson impact printer is: \027C\066. You have to refer to the user guide for your printer to find the correct printer code. If the previous entry is blank, leave this entry blank as well. o Site Name Row, Column, Skip. These entries let you change the location of the site name at the top of the folio: o Row. Enter the row or line number where you want the site name printed. Your entry must be more than 0 and should be less than 15. If you are using forms that are only 5.5 inches in length, take care not to use too many lines at the top of the form. You may want to experiment with different locations. o Column. Enter the column number where you want the site name printed. Your entry should be more than zero and less than 70; otherwise, the site name may not fit on the page. Use this option to move the site name to the left or right margin or to center the site name on the folio printout. o Skip. After printing the site name, MotelMAX skips to the next line. If you want to skip an additional line before printing the text of the folio, enter <Y>es. Enter <N>o if you do not want to skip an additional line. This is a matter of preference. Skipping an additional line tends to enhance the site name. o Upper Case. Enter <Y>es if you want to force printing the site name in upper case. If you answer <N>o, the program prints the site name exactly as it appears on the screen and reports. o End of Folio Message. Enter a message line to print on the last line of the folio. This message appears on folio pre-bills and on the final folio printed at check-out time. The message can be up to 70 characters in length. You can enter three different messages. The default is print message 1, but you can assign any message to a particular folio. When you make these adjustments to the folio set-up, you need a method to check your entries. After you complete the form, press <PgDn> to save your entries. From the Main Menu, select FrontDesk | Folios. Place the cursor on any of the current guests, and press <F7> to view the folio. The view shows you the location of the site name and general appearance of the folio. However, to test the fonts, and MotelMAX User Guide Page: 24 page length, you have to print the folio. Select <P> to print the folio to experiment with the lines per page and font sizes you have selected. Try printing folios that have more than one page of transactions to fully test the folio page length. Use the folio view and print option to test your settings. Return to the Folio Set-up form to make any changes that are necessary. Folio Headers For MotelMAX users outside the US you can use this option to change the prompts that appear on the folio invoice. This lets you use the program for most any language. While the main program is in English, the letters or invoices that are seen by guests can appear in whatever language you need. Taxes Select this option to build your user defined tax tables. Each table has a one letter tax id code. For each table you have to enter the following information. In this description, we use the words <Tax name> because the actual prompt that appears is determined by the account name you enter for this account in your Ledger Setup. By creating multiple tax tables, there are few tax circumstance that you cannot properly manage. o Tax Table. Enter a unique one character code for this table. Use letters or numbers. o Description. Enter a brief name or description for this table. o 1-Tax name-Account 32100. Use this account for your sales tax. Enter the percentage tax amount. o 2-Tax name-Account 32200. Enter a percentage amount. This works just like the sales tax. It is used primarily for Canadian GST or European VAT. Please refer to the general ledger set-up screen. There, you can modify the description of this tax to something more meaningful than `other tax'. You might want to change the description to GST or VAT as needed. o 3-Tax name-Account 32400. Enter a percentage amount. This tax is calculated as a percentage of the base charge plus the sales tax amount. This tax is a tax on a tax and is used in some localities. MotelMAX User Guide Page: 25 o 4-Room tax-Account 32200. Use this account for room or occupancy taxes. Enter the percentage amount. o 5-Room Tax Level. In some areas the room tax is not applied unless the room amount is above a certain amount or level. Enter that level here. You may want to enter 0.01 so that this tax is applied to all room charges. o 6-R-Tax surcharge-Account 32600. Enter a fixed sur charge to apply to each room charge. This is not a percentage. o 7-G-Tax surcharge-Account 32600. Enter a fixed sur charge to apply to each guest for each night stayed. This is not a percentage. Miscellaneous Select this option to adjust certain system wide settings. These options include: o Default Tax Table. Enter the tax id of the default tax table. Each time a new reservation is made, the reservation is assigned this default tax id. o Prompt for Tax Table. The default is <Y>es. Each time you book a reservation, the program prompts you for the tax table or tax id. However, if everyone is taxed at the same rate, you do not have to see this prompt every time. Enter <N>o and this entry field is not visible on the Reservation Input Form. o Occupancy Tax for Extra Guests. This option let's you apply the occupancy tax to extra guest charges in addition to room charges. Answer <Y>es to add tax 2 to extra guests. o Deposit Due Factor. Enter a number here to use in calculating the deposit due. MotelMAX takes the total amount of the reservation room charges, adds extra guest charges and taxes and multiplies that amount by this factor to calculate a deposit due amount. If you charge 50% of the reservation amount as a deposit, you would enter .5 here. If you enter 0, this signals the program that you do not require an advance deposit and this line does not appear in the confirmation letter. o Include Tax in Deposit Due. Answer <Y> es if you want MotelMAX to include taxes when calculating the deposit due amount. o Extra Guest Charge <adults>. Enter your standard extra MotelMAX User Guide Page: 26 guest charge for adults. In some cases, room nights are billed for a maximum of two guests. Additional guests are charged the amount you enter here per night. This is the default rate. When you assign an extra guest charge, you can also change the rate. o Extra Guest Charge <children>. Same as above, only this is the default rate for children. o Print <R>eservation Form or <L> etter after RSV. Enter <L> if you want MotelMAX to tag each new or edited reservation with the number <1> in the reservation browse table print queue. Enter <R> and each new or edited reservation is tagged with the letter <F> in the print queue. You can select <F8> on the reservation browse table and print all the tagged reservations at once. The custom reservation letter can be designed on the Utilities | Manager menu. The reservation form is really a back-up paper copy of the reservation. It has more information than you are likely to want to send to guests. You may want to keep it in a chronological file ordered by arrival date. o Days in Month 28-35. Set the number of days you want the program to use in determining a one month stay. Your entry can range from 28 to 35. The program adjusts accordingly. o Site Identification Code. Enter a one-letter site id code (A-Z). This code is useful if you are using MotelMAX at different sites. At some point, you may want to pool all transactions from both sites into one file. This site id code will help you to determine the origin of all transactions. You must enter a letter code here. o Set Bell On. Enter <Y>es to leave the bell on or <N>o to turn off the sound so that MotelMAX does not beep when it displays errmr messages. o Track Travel Agents. Answer <Y>es if you want to track travel agent information for a reservation. If you enter <Y>es, an additional entry appears in the reservation input form for travel agent information. Answer <N>o and this entry is omitted from the reservation input form. o Track RSV Codes. Answer <Y>es if you want to track reservation codes for a reservation. If you enter <Y>es, an additional entry appears in the reservation input form for entering user defined reservation codes. Answer <N>o and this entry is omitted from the reservation input form o Include Sunday in Weekend Rates. You can choose to MotelMAX User Guide Page: 27 make Sunday a weekend rate along with Friday and Saturday. The default is <N>o. Answer <Y>es to make the change. Existing reservations are not changed unless you press <F9> to re-calculate the reservation or until the reservation is checked-in. Printer Set-up MotelMAX comes with about ten printer setups from which you can choose. A setup includes the printer Escape Sequences and the page length and page width definitions. The printers included are: Epson, Panasonic and several HP LaserJet printers. If you have another kind of printer, you need to add it to the list. Adding a printer to the printer browse table is done as always by pressing the <Insert> key. Printer set-up requires that you enter the following information for your printer: o Printer ID. Enter a unique identification code to distinguish this printer from other printers on the list. o Description. Enter a free text description of your printer type. The next three entries are printer codes or Escape Sequences that you can find in your printer manual. If you do not have these codes, please call our technical support number and we can probably find them for you. User Names This option lets you define user names and passwords and control who has access to what parts of the program. MotelMAX comes preset with at least two usernames: MANAGER and MOTELMAX. Notice that these two user names are described as system users. This means they cannot be deleted. Having two system user names ensures that there are always two user names and that you do not have the problem of someone deleting all the user names. You can add as many user names as you like. However, each name you add will not be a system user name and therefore can be deleted. When you add you own user name you may want to edit the system user name MANAGER or MOTELMAX to your name so that your user name is a system user name. Zip Codes Use this option to edit the zip code or postal code file. You can add and edit postal codes as you enter reservations or as you edit guest records. However, at some point you may want to access this file directly to make changes or to MotelMAX User Guide Page: 28 delete some entries. Use this option for direct access to the zip code or postal code file. If you add a US zip code, only add the first five digits. Do not add the entire nine digit zip code to any entry in the file. If you are adding a Canadian postal code, add only the first three characters. Do not add the entire six character postal code. It is too specific. Reservation Codes Use this option to add, edit or delete reservations codes. You can add and edit reservation codes as you enter reservations or as you edit reservations. However, at some point you may want to access this file directly to make some changes or to delete some entries. Use this option for direct access to the reservation code file. Travel Agents When you select this item, a list of all travel agents currently defined are presented in a browse table. You can add, edit or delete travel agents to the browse table as needed. Also, when you are booking reservations, if you need to book a reservation from a travel agent you can add agents to the agent list while you are booking the reservation. However, at some point you will want to come to the main travel agent browse table and be sure that all information is correctly added for each agents. MotelMAX User Guide Page: 29