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Timesavers in TOPS 2000™

"How can I do more in less time?" This is a question we all ask ourselves. TOPS Software has developed tools to streamline your work and make running your communities a little easier.

Flex Data

In the Owner Module, the Flex Data section can make it easier to manage those little details. This is located under Owner, Maintain, and can be used to store any type of information directly related to individual owners. For example, children, pets (type/name/age/licenses), homeowners insurance, keys, or any other information you want to track.

To change the titles, click the Define Flex Data button and rename the fields to anything you want. In addition to entering this information, you can print out a report, (Owner, Reports, Flex Data) and pass this information along to anyone who might have need of it.

Default Expense Codes

One of the biggest timesaver modules is Accounts Payable. We have several ways to speed up the process of paying bills and managing vendors. Starting in the vendor screen, use of default expense codes is almost a given.

When you put in a bill to be paid, the default expense code will automatically appear. It can always be changed or added to in the voucher, but for your regular contracts/vendors you know what codes will be charged each month.

Recurring A/P

Another HUGE timesaver is the use of recurring accounts payable. Recurring does not mean that the amount needs to be the same every month; it only means that you pay that vendor on a regular basis. This could be bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or even annually.

Think of all the time you would save by not having to add in all of the bills, account numbers, and breakdown of a vendor bill. Utilities are a good example. Multiply ten electric bills, with two or three different expense codes, by 12 months worth of entering. That is just ONE type of vendor bill and only for one community.

Vendor History

Another way to save time is to use the vendor history to perform research, such as who put the new roof on a building, for warranty work. If you purge your history, you will then have to go to the file cabinets to look for the invoice. Or, if the work was done more than a year ago, it won’t be in the filing cabinet, it will be in a box. The box will be in a vacant office and of course it will be the last box you look in. 

Why go through all of that when all you have to do is go to AP, Vendors, bring up the roofer and click history. All the information you need is right at your fingertips.

Recurring Entries

In the General Ledger, we also have a few timesaver options for you. One of these is Recurring Journal Entries. This is primarily used for those journal entries you do monthly. Some examples are transfers to reserve accounts, bank service charges, interest income and much more.

By using the recurring system, you only have to enter the information in the journal entry one time and then go in and change the amount and post it.

GL Source Reprint

Another feature that a lot of people don’t know of or use is in the General Ledger. It is known as Source Reprint (GL, Reports). This is used for researching where an entry went that never made it to the place you wanted it to go.

To utilize it, go to GL, view accounts, put in the side of the transaction you know. When you locate the transaction in question write down the Source ID and Reference ID and proceed to enter this information in the Source Reprint. The system will then find both sides of the transaction and give you the detail you need to make the appropriate entry to reclass it where it should have gone.

This is a lot easier than the old way of thumbing through fifty-plus pages of the general ledger, trying to find it by hand. This is especially useful if "CASPER" comes to visit your office and tries to help out. Casper is the "friendly ghost" who sometimes does things to our systems that we don'’t want done, or does them wrong. After all, we don't make mistakes so it has to be Casper!

Report Defaults

A newer feature of TOPS 2000™ is Report Defaults. This is another timesaver opportunity that is often skipped over. It is located on the TOPS 2000™ menu bar right next to Utilities. If you click Report Defaults, Set Defaults, you can set the way all of your reports should print out at the end of every month. Then, at the end of the month, simply click report defaults, print reports, and enter the report dates, and all of your AR, GL and AP reports will print at the touch of a button.

Again, if it takes ten minutes per month to select all the reports times 12 months per community, that is 120 minutes per community that you will be saving.

Just using these options, you will be amazed at how much time was spent doing those little chores that can now be used for other things.

Andrea Drennen is the Internet Services Manager.

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