Tips & Tricks

Accounts Receivable Tips & Tricks

1. Return Payment Address on Bills & Coupons
2. Print Coupons In Advance Without Affecting Current Charge Tables
3. Delinquency Trend Report
4. Updating Fees to Print Next Year's Coupons
5. Setting Up Prepaid Codes
6. How to Print Histories for ALL Owners
7. How to Apply Assessments for a Single Owner

Return Payment Address on Bills & Coupons

When printing Bills and coupons, select the down arrow next to the Return Payment Address to select which return address you wish to use. You may select from any of three different addresses: community address, management address or lockbox address.

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Print Coupons In Advance Without Affecting Current Charge Tables

Now when you print or generate coupons, you can predefine the changes to your charge tables without having to change the live charge table settings for the current period.

To change charge amounts from either Print Coupons or Create Coupon Folder, select your printing options, click Print, select the charge tables you wish to include for each month, click OK, and then double click on the charge table in which you wish to change charges. Click in the 'Next Year Assmt Amount' field and enter the amount of the charges for next year. You must also select the 'Next Year Amount' radio button to ensure that the new charges are included on the coupons. Click OK, Next, and OK again to create your new coupons.

When the next year comes around, you can implement the new charges you set up when you created your coupons. To apply the new charges, click AR, Apply Charges, Charge Tables, select the charge table, and then click on the Utilities button. Select "Move Next Year Charge Amounts to Current" and click OK.

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Delinquency Trends Report

The new Delinquency Trends report shows delinquency levels for the past 6 months and allows you to add notes to explain delinquency level trends.
To create this interactive report, click AR, Reports, Delinquency Trends Report, and click Print. Click Create New to begin a new version of the report notes file, and enter the notes for each charge table in the selected reporting period. You may also customize the heading text on the report. Click the save button if you wish to return to this report and edit it later, or click print to print it right away.

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Updating Fees to Print Next Year's Coupons

Great News! In TOPS v3.2.1™ we've added a new menu option in the BILLS & COUPONS Module to allow you to update your next year's maintenance fees -- without changing your current year's fees.

To create coupons using this feature, go to AR, BILLS & COUPONS, and follow these steps:

1. Click Create Coupon File. Define your settings and click Print.
2. Check the month in which you will be charging fees for each charge table and click OK.
3. To enter new charges for next year, select the charge table you wish to alter, and double click on it, or press the <ENTER> key.
4. Select Next Year Amount, and change the values accordingly. (The frequency and calculation method will remain the same as the current year's settings.)
5. Once you have updated the charges, click OK to proceed with the coupon file generation.

The new "Next Years Charges" option is available if you print your own coupons or produce a coupon file for offsite processing. Additionally, once you've changed your maintenance fees in BILLS & COUPONS, a new Charge Table UTILITIES option allows you to simply update your charge tables to the new fees when you're ready to bill for January.

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Setting Up Prepaid Codes

The prepaid feature allows you to track owner prepaids or credits balances in a pre-defined account, then when charges are billed you control how the prepaids are applied using the prepaid codes feature.

For each charge table you create, a corresponding prepaid code is assigned. For example, in TOPS version 3.1 A1 - PA, C1 - P1, and in TOPS version 3.2 A1 - PP-A1, C1 - PP-C1, etc. When processing your cash receipts, you may designate which Prepaid Code to post the cash receipt to.

If you setup prepaid codes when charges are billed and the prepayments are applied, only the corresponding charge will be paid if a credit balance exists in that prepaid account.

When prepaids are not designated for a specific charge code and prepayments are made, the credits are automatically applied by the cash receipts system in the order you set in your cash application table. The order is usually established by your board and sets the policy for your community on how to handle charges in the event an owner owes monies on more than one charge type.

Whether or not to use prepaids codes should be determined when you are setting up your new community or charge tables. Switching midstream is not recommended; doing so will cause problems with your delinquency reports.

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How to Print Histories for ALL Owners

Go to AR, YEAR END, and select PRINT HISTORY

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How to Apply Assessments for a Single Owner

Use AR, OWNER BALANCES. Select the owner, and use the ADD/WAIVE function to apply the assessment.

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Tips and Tricks
Modules:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Administration
• Attachments
• Check Rec
• CC&R
• Cmty Fact Sheet
• Form Letters
• Gate Security
• General Ledger
• Global Functions
• Job Streaming
• Owner Database
• Payroll
• Phone Messenger
• Plug-Ins
• Printing & Reports
• Utilities
• Users & Passwords
• Work Order