Tips & Troubleshooting

Activity Slips tips

An employee (or vendor) who performed an activity doesn’t have a card

Before you can record an activity slip, you must choose an employee or vendor card. If you’re entering an activity slip for a new employee or vendor, you must first create a card for them.

For more information, see Creating employee cards and Creating a vendor card.

A customer who requested an activity doesn’t have a card

Before you can record an activity slip, you must choose a customer card. If you’re entering an activity slip for a new customer, you must first create a card for them.

For more information, see Creating a customer card.

Options for measuring time units

The default billable time unit used for activities is hourly, but you can enter partial amounts if you want. For example, 90 minutes equals 1.5 hourly units.

If you want, you can track time in 1-, 6-, 10-, 12-, 15- or 30-minute units. To change the default unit, go to the System view of the Preferences window, then select For Time Billing, Enter Time in Special [...] and choose the time unit you want from the adjacent list.

Changing the default rate in the Activity window

When you create an activity, you can choose to use the employee’s or vendor’s billing rate, the customer’s billing rate, or a rate you specify for the activity when setting it up.

■	Vendor billing rates can be changed in the Buying Details view of the Card Information window.

■	Customer billing rates can be changed in the Selling Details view of the Card Information window.

■	Employee billing rates can be changed in the Billing Details view of the Card Information window.

You can also enter another billing rate in the Rate field of the Activity Slip window if you want.

Billable amounts don’t appear on the activity slip

The activity you selected for this slip may have been marked as non-chargeable in the Activity Information window. To fix this, open the Activities List and click the zoom arrow to view the activity in detail. The Activity Information window appears. Select the Chargeable option and enter the billing information for the activity.

Changing the rounding of time units

When you use the timer to track time spent on an activity, the amount in the Units field may be rounded up or down, or to the nearest whole unit. To change the way time units are automatically rounded, open the System view of the Preferences window and change your selection for the Round Timer-Calculated time […] Billing Unit option. You can choose from up to next, down to previous or nearest.

Printing your activity slip notes on invoices

If you want your activity slip notes to appear on invoices, open the Prepare Time Billing Invoice window and select the Use Activity Slip Notes Instead of Activity Name/Description on Invoice option.

Editing an activity slip entered in the Multiple Slip Entry view

To edit an activity slip after it has been recorded, display the Multiple Slip Entry view and select the employee (or vendor) who performed the activity. All the activities associated with that employee (or vendor) will appear in the list below. Locate the activity slip you want to change, then click the zoom arrow next to open it in the Activity Slip view. Edit as required and click OK.

Note that if you view the edited activity slip in the Multiple Slip Entry view later, the details won’t appear to be updated. However, when you prepare the time billing invoice including this activity, the updated details will be used.

Purging activity slips

Activity slips remain listed in the Multiple Slip Entry view until you purge them using the Purge Activity Slips window. Note that an activity slip can only be purged after it has been billed on an invoice, and that invoice has also been purged. For more information, see Purging information that is no longer needed.

I can’t find the activity I want to invoice

If you’re searching by employee, vendor, or by job in the Prepare Time Billing Invoice window, try selecting the All Employees and Vendors and All Jobs options to widen your search.

If you are still unable to locate the activity slip you want, click the Completed Work tab to see whether it’s been fully billed already.

If you cannot locate it, it may have been accidentally assigned to the wrong customer. Go to the Activity Log and view a list of all the activity slips entered for a particular employee or vendor, along with the customer that the slip was assigned to. When you find the slip assigned to the wrong customer, click the zoom arrow next to it to open the Enter Activity Slip window. Select the correct customer and click OK.

Billing more than the billable amount displayed

You can bill more than the billable amount that has been calculated for each activity. When you do, the Hrs/Units field in the Sales window will be updated to reflect the additional billed amount. For example, if you double the billable amount on an activity slip that originally showed 1 unit billed, the invoice will show 2 units. This change also will be reflected in the Detail View of the View Activity Log window and in the Activity Slip view of the Enter Activity Slip window.

Billing less than the billable amount

If you bill for less than the full billable amount, the remaining amount will appear in the Work in Progress view of the Prepare Time Billing Invoice window, and you’ll be able to bill for it at a later date. The remaining amount also appears in the Activity Slip view of the Enter Activity Slip window.

If you’re giving the customer a discount or writing off part of the billable amount, you may not want the remaining amount to appear as still payable. Open the Activity Slip view of the Enter Activity Slip window and enter a negative amount in the Adjustment field equal to the remaining billable amount. The Left to Bill amount will adjust to zero and the activity slip will be removed from the Prepare Time Billing Invoice window.

Consolidating activities

In the Prepare Time Billing Invoice window, you can select the Consolidate Activities on Invoice option so that all activity slips with the same activity ID will be consolidated into a single line item on the customer’s invoice. If you’ve assigned jobs to the activities, activity slips with the same activity ID and job number will be consolidated.

If you’re unsure whether to consolidate items, prepare the invoice using the consolidation option and then check the invoice to make sure it meets your needs. If it does not, prepare the invoice again without selecting the activity consolidation option.