SCG Bill Archiving Utility
Overview:
In order to solve the problem of continually accumulating bill documents, Swerdlove Consulting Group LLC has developed an application that integrates with the CMS.Net "billing desktop." This customized native CMS billing form does the following:
- Allows the firm to use standard Query By Example syntax to select a group of bill candidates to be archived;
- Using the standard "select all" and other buttons identify those candidates that are eligible; and
- Choose the "Archive" button to move the bills out of the default network billing folder into an archive directory structure.
Note the new filter fields pictured below that are available to allow you to list bills in various state of payment either by outstanding AR or AR status (Outstanding, Settled, Cancelled, etc.)
Description:
The archived bills have the following properties:
- They are grouped in subdirectories by billing period to keep the folder size manageable;
- The file name is changed from the default [prebill number].BIL to a more useful [bill number].WPD or [bill number].RTF
If the firm has migrated from WordPerfect to Word, you can set the break-off point by bill number to store the archived bills with the .WPD extension for WordPerfect bills and .RTF extension for Word bills. This allows the user to launch the appropriate word processor by just double-clicking the file.
The root of the archive directory is designated in the DocuDraft Paths application under "Path to Data Files."
Under the archive root, new period folders will be automatically created when bills are archived. For example:
In addition to the "Archive" button on the toolbar, OSD Bill Archiving provides a "Retrieve" button to allow users to view and reprint bills from within the utility after they have been archived. Note the new column on the listbox: "Archived," as well as "A/R Balance" and "A/R Status" in the first illustration
If a user attempts to view or print an archived bill without first retrieving it, they will immediately receive the following error message:
If this message results, simply choose "Retrieve" and view or print the bill again. Behind the scenes, the file will be copied from the archive folder into the default DocuDraft billing folder (renaming it back to the [prebill number].bil naming convention); and when the user exits the application, the copy of the archived file will be deleted leaving only a single copy in the archive directory.
Installation:
1. Run DBGen in Ad Hoc mode
- Apply VIEWBILL.POP. This will install the application as instance #1 of the VIEWBILL form and add a row in CMS_OPTION to control the application's options;
- Apply BLTBILL.GEN. This will add the column _ARCHIVED to the main billing table;
- Apply _LOOKUP.GEN. This will install the custom table OSD_LOOKUP to store the list of retrieved bills.
- Security: Access to the "Archive" and "Retrieve" buttons can be independently controlled if the "ALPHA_VALUE" in CMS_OPTION is set to "Y". Create security workgroups "SARC" (Security ARChive) and "SRET" (Security RETrieve). The appropriate buttons will become visible on the application's toolbar when the security group assignment is granted in Personnel Maintenance. Alternatively, to simply grant all functions to individuals or groups, use CMS Screen Painter to assign the custom VIEWBILL form instead, leaving the "ALPHA_VALUE" in CMS_OPTION set to "N";
- WordPerfect/Word break point: If you wish to store WordPerfect files with .WPD extension and Word files with .RTF extension, set the "INTEGER_VALUE" in CMS_OPTION to the first .RTF bill number. If all bills are WordPerfect, set the value to 999999999. If all bills are .RTF, leave the value at 0