"Self Management--know what You post!" (08/25/08)
"You manage yourself all the time! You decide when to wake up, get to work, eat dinner. But are you extending your management to knowing what you're posting? If you print proof lists unfailingly, you can stop reading here. But if you're not using proof lists, read on. Printing a proof list before you post transactions is an invaluable tool you can use to make your life easier. Catching data entry mistakes before posting means not having to look for what's wrong later. You can even save your proof lists as PDF documents. Add a folder with the current month's name to your desktop; save all your proof lists to it. That's self management for people who post!" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Job Costs your way" (08/18/08)
"How many ways to cost a job? You can add a time entry and an A/P invoice. But did you know you can add costs for in-house output, duplication, and production equipment; e.g., videotapes, slides, film output, pre-press, etc.? Or add an expense report for your reimbursable out-of-pocket costs, like tolls, client lunches, cab fare, etc.? Or add a job cost check when a payment is needed for client job-related goods or services for which you've not added an A/P invoice? You can even transfer job costs if needed!" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Shortcut for Journal Entries" (08/11/08)
"From a single JE you can make a set of recurring entries. Click the Recurring checkbox when adding a new JE, then click Save. The Schedule Recurring JEs window opens prompting you to select into which upcoming periods this transaction will be posted. Click Save to save these scheduled entries. (Recurring entries can’t be scheduled into locked accounting periods.) They are printed on a G/L proof list by checking the include recurring entries checkbox. (To proof/post recurring entries for a specific period only, click the proof/post recurring entries for a specific period checkbox.)" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Which markup is right?" (08/04/08)
"There are lots of places to add markup percentages in C&P X. Bottom line: You really only need to add markup in one place—the Task Table. It's copied to every job ticket to which a task is added. If you promise a new client a special markup for your "honeymoon" period, add a markup to their client billing info. When a new job is added for them, their client markup replaces the task table markup. When the honeymoon's over—sigh—simply remove the client markup. The next new job added gets the task table markup. (Note: A vendor file markup percentage is not usually needed.)" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Clean up your agings" (07/28/08)
"Are there old invoices on agings that were underpaid or overpaid, so linger on? Shorten the length of your agings by adding an adjusting entry to remove invoices that are no longer active. Add one adjustment for each vendor or client that has open invoices that you want to remove. First, print current agings. Add together the positive balances for the invoices you want to remove. Then, subtract any negative (credit) balances. The result is the amount of the write-off transaction. (For vendors, choose Accounting > Checkbook. Choose Edit > Checkbook Tools > Add Vendor Credit. For clients, choose Accounting > Client Payments. Click Add. Select the Write Off payment type.)" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Learn while working" (07/21/08)
"Getting started in C&P X? Check out the C&P Online User Guide. When you are in any window in C&P X, if you click the help button, you'll be taken to the corresponding page in this on-line guide. If you scroll to the bottom of the home page, you'll see the Getting Started section of our feature guide. Read that for tips on getting started. On the right side of the home page are links to useful information. We even have on-demand videos of our new user training class that are listed by individual sections so they are quick and easy to watch. Click here to see them. If ever asked on our web site for your password (and you don't know it), please call the Helpdesk." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Payments on-line" (07/14/08)
"What do you do with open A/P invoices when paid on-line? Pay them with a vendor credit, so you don't have to waste a check. (Choose Accounting > Accounts Payable. Choose Edit > Check Tools > Add Vendor Credit.) The amount is the balance of the invoice. The cGL is the G/L account that was reduced when you paid online. The reference number is up to you; but it needs to be outside the range of your check stock numbers. You can pay multiple invoices for a vendor at one time." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Update scheduling info" (07/07/08)
"Has your shop fallen behind in marking scheduled tasks as finished? Luckily it's easily fixed. (Choose Production > Work to do. Click Unfinished and Overdue. Click Find.) Any scheduled task with a due date prior to today appears in the Work to do window. Highlight as many tasks as needed. Click the Mark as finished button. Each highlighted task is finished with the current day's date. Now scheduling reports are back on track." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Task-happy users?" (06/30/08)
"User access for adding tasks can be tailored to your needs (or fears). Prevent users from adding tasks to jobs for better control of job costs. You really want staffers to use only tasks that have been previously estimated. If a staffer thinks another task should be added, then they can talk to you. Perhaps a revised estimate or change order is needed as well." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Bill Clients Faster" (06/23/08)
"Auto-billing creates invoices automatically. It's the same result as if you'd added an invoice for each of your unbilled jobs. The auto-billing process is simple: unbilled jobs are chosen by production or billing status. Then an invoice is created automatically, including a line item for every unbilled task on the job ticket is included. All of the appropriate job details are copied, so there's no retyping. Jobs can be auto-billed by client or by project. If billing for one client or project, you can select the option to create one invoice which will include all the appropriate jobs and unbilled amounts. Read more about it in the Clients & Profits Online User Guide." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Charging costs to job tickets " (06/16/08)
"There are numerous ways to add job costs: through A/P invoices, expenses, internal charges, time entries and as job cost checks. You may have noticed that the journal entries for these transactions include a job number and client in the General Ledger. Job and client information flows one direction: from posted job costs to the G/L. Therefore, JEs added directly to the G/L that include job and client information do not appear on a job ticket when posted.

The purpose of job and client fields in the G/L is for certain G/L reports: the Client and Job P&L reports. (Choose Snapshots > Financials. Select Income Statements. ) If you want costs for specific jobs included on these reports (perhaps payroll entries), you can add a client and/or job number for the JE. However, this JE will not appear on a job. (If you need to affect a job with a JE, please call the helpdesk for further instructions.) -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Speed up collections" (06/09/08)
"The Collection Manager is a terrific tool for improving how you get paid. When the Collection Manager window is opened, it lists every posted, unpaid invoice from Accounts Receivable. Every invoice for every account executive or account team is included. Receivables are color-coded by age, highlighting problem invoices so that they can get top priority by the billing department.

Use the collection status to track what you’ve done to get an invoice paid. The different statuses methodically walk through the collection process until the invoice is paid—or written off as uncollectable. Read more about it in the Clients & Profits Online User Guide. -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Proposals before job tickets" (06/02/08)
"Proposals let you outline a clear, concise synopsis of what you are offering without opening an actual job ticket. Organize important details before so that both your shop and a client have the same understanding of the work.

Proposals are added when pitching an idea to a client (or prospective client, too). Once your bid is accepted, they are easily converted into job tickets. With a creative brief, initial budget, and start and due dates, you can pinpoint exactly what resources are needed to get a job done.

A printed proposal looks like the combination of a job ticket report and creative brief. It doesn't get a job number, but each proposal is numbered automatically in sequence. A proposal gets its creative brief from a user-selected job type/spec sheet when it is added. Read more about it in the Clients & Profits Online User Guide." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Checks, checks, and more checks" (05/26/08)
"It's easy to review your shop's cash outflows. The Cash Disbursement Journal report prints 3 different types of checks: checks that pay vendor invoices, i.e., vendor checks; checks that are directly costed to a job ticket, i.e., job cost checks; and overhead checks, i.e., checks directly costed to overhead G/L accounts. The latter two types of check are not paying A/P invoices. Use them when you haven't previously added an A/P invoice to be paid. (An employee advance check used when reconciling an expense report is not in C&P X Classic.)" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Reviewing hours for payroll" (05/19/08)
"Congratulations! Your entire shop is tracking their full work day in C&P X. Now it's your turn to review it. Each week, print a Weekly Time Summary report. (Choose Snapshots > Productivity.) You'll see each staffer's total hours for each day vs their planned hours for the week. (Add planned hours in each staffer's availability window.) If you'd like more details, print the Weekly Time Analysis. You'll see each staffer's individual time entries with job and task." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"No more guessing at G/L accounts!" (05/12/08)
"Which G/L account should be used for various transactions should not be left to chance. To have accurate financials reports, set up G/L accounts in two places. After adding them to your chart of accounts, add them to tasks in the Task Table. Typically, a debit G/L (dGL) is a job cost account and a credit G/L (cGL) is a revenue/income account. Next set up the default G/L accounts for the other side of transactions. In Preferences, select G/L Accounts. Add every default G/L account needed. Now C&P X knows exactly where to put the debits and credits even if someone adding transactions doesn't!" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Number One Client?" (05/05/08)
"The Client vs Client Gross Margin prints billing totals for your clients within a specific date range, provides a percentage of your total billings for each client and the gross margin for each client. (Choose Snapshots > Profitability. Select Client Profitability reports. The report prints total billings (less any sales tax) for each client that was invoiced during this date range along with net cost totals. A net revenue percentage is calculated based on billings less costs, as well a gross margin, based on net revenue less labor costs. This report is a very important tool in helping you gauge which of your clients are most profitable...and, unfortunately, those that are not." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Print it your way!" (04/28/08)
"The most cost effective way to print with C&P X is to print to screen. From a screen report, you can choose to print to a printer if needed. You can set up a user's General access to default to screen. Other default settings are printer, screen, PDF, email, HTML, export or clipboard. Anytime a user wants to print something, they can easily edit the destination. (Choose File > Print Destination.) Any report or form printed from C&P X can be saved as a PDF or even emailed directly to any staffer. You can also keep the PDFs of C&P X reports for easy access. That way, you don't have to search for a hard copy or reprint a report if you don't have to reprint it." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Delete unnecessary job tasks" (04/21/08)
"When adding new jobs using job types, sometimes you get tasks not needed for a specific job even though they are usually needed for this type of work. Simply delete unwanted tasks once a job ticket is added. In the job ticket window, highlight tasks you don't need. (Hold down the apple or control key while clicking unwanted tasks so you can select more than one at a time.) Choose Edit > Remove Job Task(s). You'll get a window to confirm each task you wish to delete. Click Yes. Your jobs are even more tailored to what will be done for this specific job." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"A variety of disclaimers" (04/14/08)
"Different types of work your shop does on a regular basis can require different estimate disclaimers. Of course you can set up a standard disclaimer for estimates, but what about certain types of work which require different disclaimer verbiage? Look no further than your Job Types! Using job types makes adding new jobs quicker, easier and more consistent; and each job type can have its own estimate disclaimer as well. You can be assured that you're not leaving out an important disclaimer element when working on estimates in C&P X once you add them to each job type." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Tab, tab, tab" (04/07/08)
"I know it's been said many times, many ways...but tab, tab, tab when you're working in C&P. Tabbing through your data entry error-checks against default information, e.g., ensuring a vendor you're using is in the vendor file. Tabbing moves information from one area to another so you don't have to retype, e.g., a purchase order's information appears in an A/P invoice you're adding. Tabbing is also the way to calculate sums, e.g., estimated hours times billing rate equals an estimated amount." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Adding Job Costs" (03/31/08)
"There are numerous ways to add job costs: through A/P invoices, expenses, internal charges, time entries and as job cost checks. You may have noticed that the journal entries for these transactions include a job number and client in the General Ledger. Job and client information flows one direction: from posted job costs to the G/L. Therefore, JEs added directly to the G/L that include job and client information do not appear on a job ticket when posted. The purpose of job and client fields in the G/L is for certain G/L reports: the Client and Job P&L reports. (Choose Snapshots > Financials. Select Income Statements. ) If you want costs for specific jobs included on these reports (perhaps payroll entries), you can add a client and/or job number for the JE. However, this JE will not appear on a job. (If you need to affect a job with a JE, please call the helpdesk for further instructions.)" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Time to Close the Year?" (03/24/08)
"For those shops on a calendar year using Clients & Profits X Classic, the 3 extra months you have to finish up accounting work is ending on March 31. It's almost time to close the year; do it once and do it right. Here's a little friendly guidance...the Clients & Profits X on-line Close Year Guided Tour. It's an easy-to-use illustrated timeline of what leads up to and follows a successful year-end close. Every step is here so you won't forgot anything! It takes about 20 minutes--time very well spent." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Printing proof list first" (03/17/08)
"Have you wondered why when you go to post, the option to 'Print a proof list first' is always selected? Because you're supposed to print one before posting! Check your work now instead of looking for a problem at the end of the month when there's so much more to go through. It's a smart way to work!" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Delinquent on time entry?" (03/10/08)
"They look, speak and eat lunch like ordinary staffers. But deep down, they're not! What are they? They're behind on adding their time this week. Know who you're after by printing just one report: Missing Time. It prints each staffer by department and each day's missing time. Missing time is determined by the difference between their planned and actual hours. Read more about the report in the Clients & Profits Online User Guide. You can also read more about adding planned hours to each user's staff file here." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Dramatically simplify billing" (03/03/08)
"Auto-billing creates invoices automatically. It’s the same result as if you’d added an invoice for each of your unbilled jobs. The auto-billing process is simple: unbilled jobs are chosen by production or billing status. Then an invoice is created automatically, including a line item for every unbilled task on the job ticket is included. All of the appropriate job details are copied, so there’s no retyping. Jobs can be auto-billed by client or by project. If billing for one client or project, you can select the option to create one invoice which will include all the appropriate jobs and unbilled amounts. Read more about it in the Clients & Profits Online User Guide." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Priority rules the Daily Job Status report" (02/25/08)
"When printed, the Daily Job Status report now sorts jobs by client with hot jobs on top. (Assign a job one of 6 user-defined priority levels. This helps identify the intensity with which a job needs to move through your shop.) Each job s account exec and due date print along with current production status, status note (brief note supplementing current production status), and next steps (additional notes area for any current concerns and/or internal traffic information.)" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Billing (and Cost) Rates explained" (02/18/08)
"C&P X supports a variety of billing rates based on staffer, client, and task. There’s only one cost rate for staffers which is added in their Staff file. In the Task Table, each task can have a task-based rate. Billing rates can be added in Client and Staff files. Each of those can have a standard (flat) rate and/or specialized rates. (But, only add rates where you need them.) The determining factor for which rate is used for time entries depends on the billing rate default. (Choose Preferences > Accounting.) This billing rate default copies to each new job you add unless you refer to a job type that has a different billing rate default set up in its estimate options. If needed, you can edit an individual job’s billing rate default...or even an individual task!" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Easy client payment adjustments" (02/11/08)
"When adding a client payment, the amount is the total payment received, then deposited to your bank. If you need to make an adjustment to further reduce the balance of an invoice, you'll add that information in the Distribute Payments window. Select an invoice(s) to be paid. In the Adjust column, add an amount to be applied to an invoice but is not part of the money that is being deposited to your bank. The discount G/L column is for a G/L account that is debited with an adjustment amount. Click Save. Proof and post as usual. Once a client payment is posted, an invoice is removed from a client aging report if the total payment plus the adjustment reduces its balance to zero." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Better manage the collections process" (02/04/08)
"The Collection Manager is a terrific tool for improving how you get paid. When the Collection Manager window is opened, it lists every posted, unpaid invoice from Accounts Receivable. Every invoice for every account executive or account team is included. Receivables are color-coded by age, highlighting problem invoices so that they can get top priority by the billing department. Use the collection status to track what you’ve done to get an invoice paid. The different statuses methodically walk through the collection process until the invoice is paid—or written off as uncollectable. Read more about it in the Clients & Profits Online User Guide." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Retainers in the New Year" (01/28/08)
"A new year begins! It's time to bill your January retainers. But you find a client's retainer schedule is filled with last year's retainer information. What you need to do is clear the schedule. But before doing that, be sure to print a client's retainer schedule for your records. You can save it as a pdf or print a hard copy. It's up to you. (Choose My > My Clients. Find a client. Click the Retainer link.) Once you clear it, you can add retainer information for a new year." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Close the year with a friend" (01/21/08)
"Actually, with a little friendly guidance...the Clients & Profits X on-line Close Year Guided Tour. It's an easy-to-use illustrated timeline of what leads up to and follows a successful year—end close. Every step is here so you won't forgot anything! It takes about 20 minutes—time well spent." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"No Rush to Close the Year" (01/14/08)
"There's never any rush to close your fiscal year when using C&P X! You have 3 extra months with C&P Classic X; and 12 extra months (2 fiscal years open simultaneously) with C&P Pro X and C&P SQL X. If you're on a calendar year, edit the first day of your fiscal year to the current year right after New Year's. Doing this stops a warning message during new data entry. Also, if job numbers include a 2-digit prefix for year, update to the current year as well. (Choose Clients & Profits X > Preferences on a Mac. {On a PC, choose Setup > Preferences.} Select Job Numbering.)" -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Client projects to the rescue!" (01/07/08)
"Need to move costs and billings from one job to another? Since billed costs and billings can't be transferred, try uniting two or more jobs with a client project. A report by project prints each job's costs and billings and then totals by project. A project can be assigned to a job ticket at any time, even after it has costs and billings. To add a project for a client, see our online user guide. Then, assign a project to an existing job ticket. (Choose Production > Job Tickets. Find a job. Click the Edit button.) The project heading is the first user-defined field (lower-left corner of the Job Description window.) Click the corresponding value field (to the right.) (Choose Lookup > Client Projects. Double-click the project you want.) It is added to the job. Click Save. Repeat the process for each job." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk

"Managing your shop's big move!" (01/01/08)
"If your shop is moving to a new location, C&P X can be your moving assistant! If you haven't already added your shop in C&P X as a client, then do so. Next add a job ticket to track your move. If needed, add some new job tasks. But some of your existing job tasks may apply, e.g., printing. It can be used when adding a PO to track committed and then actual costs associated with printing letterhead, etc., that includes your new address. Every C&P X feature that you use to track your client's work you can use to track your internal commitments, costs, and even schedule any associated work to do." -- Mindy Williams Clients & Profits Helpdesk