FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How do I make my screen change size ?
The size of the objects appearing on your computer screen will be affected by the resolution settings you have chosen for your monitor. To change the resolution and/or the number of colors your monitor can produce, right click on the Windows desktop screen and click on Properties. Click on Settings and you will be able to change the display properties of your monitor.
WBAR was designed to run with at least 800 x 600 resolution and 256 colors. Most computer displays offer this setting or higher. The larger the numbers, the small the higher the resolution will be and the small objects will appear on your computer screen.
Question : How do I print something on my screen ? On my old computer, I could press the Print Scr key and send it to the printer.
On the older DOS machines, the Print Scr key sent the screen display to the LPT port and out to the printer. On Windows based computers, this feature was replaced by the capture and paste method. Some of the screens in WBAR have Print Screen buttons which will send the screen you are looking at to your printer. You can capture information from your screen by pressing the ALT key and the Print Screen (Prt Scr) keys at the same time. Windows "captures" the active window and places it into the Windows clipboard where you can then paste the image into any word processes, paint program, spreadsheet, etc. If you want to capture the entire screen, including other windows you may have open, press the Print Screen key by itself. Another option is to install the PrintKey utility software included on the installation CD. The PrintKey program will capture what is on the screen when the Print or PrtScn key is pressed. Data can then be copy to the Windows clipboard for pasting into programs which can accept graphics.
Question : Why doesn't my printer immediately start printing when I start a report ?
Windows, and most network software, uses a special method of handling print jobs called print spooling. When you start a report, the output is first sent to a file on the computer's hard drive. The information is collected and placed into a queue manager which then releases the report to the printer as soon as it is available. In this way, many print jobs can be sent to the same printer at the same time. It also allows the computer to return to the program faster because it does not have to wait for the printer to finish printing.
Settings in your printer setup file can affect how Windows handles your print jobs. For example, you can tell Windows not to spool jobs and send them directly to the printer. You can also control the print queue using Windows to cancel print jobs, change priority, etc. See the section in the Windows online help file under Printers or contact MicroSoft technical support for further assistance.
Question: I had a power failure and now some of my payments, adjustments, customers, etc. are missing or out of order.
WBAR uses a sophisticated dynamic indexing method to keep track of your customer data. Any time data is altered, the program updates the index files so that it can be quickly located. In most cases, the data itself is probably ok, but the index file WBAR uses may have been damaged or corrupted. This can occur any time the program is terminated unexpectedly due to a fatal program error, power interruption, or equipment failure.
Go to the System Menu and run the option to Reorganize your data. This will rebuild the index files and should restore access to the missing records. If the data itself is damaged, you will need to restore your files from your most recent backup. If you need further assistance, call Tri C technical support.
Question : My customer history file does not match my customer balance. The customer balance is correct, but when I view/print the history, I get a different balance.
WBAR records all transactions affecting the customer first in the master customer record and secondly in the history file. When you post payments, adjustments, billing etc., the balances are updated in the customer record and then the detail records are added to the history file. If for any reason the detail records are not created in the history file, the balances will not match. This is because the history balance is really the total of all transactions leading up to the current balance. If one or more records are missing, the balance will not be the same. Records may be missing or damaged if you have experienced a program fatal error, power outage, equipment failure or other form of interruption.
The solution to this problem is to adjust the account using the History Only button. Enter an adjustment for the account that will bring the history balance in line with the customer record balance. Click on the History Only button and WBAR will update only the history file causing the two sides to match once again.
Question: Can I edit accounts or process transactions after I calculate the billing ?
Editing Accounts After Calculations
To understand the answer to this question, you must first understand how WBAR processes billing. The bill calculation process starts by making a new file that contains all of the accounts that fall within the account range you specifiy when you select Calculate Billing. The new file that is created is called BILLING. The BILLING file contains all of the fields needed to calculate new charges and print bills. Any edits you make to a customer account after BILLING is created will not be reflected in the calculations or on the bills unless you recalculate. This is because the information you've changed in the customer account cannot be carried into the BILLING file until a calculate is performed. For example, if you calculate and then change the mailing address of one of your customers, you will need to recalculate in order for the address change to show up on the bills you are about to print. You can recalculate as often as you need to.
Processing Transactions After Calculations
Payments
You may "post" payments into the cash collection file at any time. Payments are not immediately applied to the balances of an account. Posting a payment does not change the account balance until all of the payments in the cash collection file are "updated". Updating occurs when you have printed the Daily Cash Receipts Report and then answer Yes to the update question at the end of the report. The update process applies all of the payments to the balances of accounts. If you must update payments after you have calculated your billing, then you must recalculate after the update in order for the new balances to be reflected in the next billing.
Adjustments
Any adjustments made to an account are immediately applied to the balances of that account. Therefore, if you adjust an account after you have calculated billing, you must recalculate in order for the adjustment to be reflected in the next billing.
Deposit Refunds / Forfeitures
Deposit forfeits are immediately applied to the balances of an account. If any portion of a deposit is forfeited, the balance of the account will immediately reflect the change in balance. If you have calculated billing and then process a deposit where any portion is forfeited, you must recalculate in order for the forfeited payment to be reflected in the next billing.
* Deposit refunds resulting in the full return of the deposit do not require recalculation.
Deleting An Account or Adding An Account
If you add a new account or delete an existing account after you have calculated billing, you must recalculate if the account you have added or deleted falls within the range of accounts you used when bills were calculated. For example, if 02-0045 was within the range of accounts used when billing was calculated, and that account has now been deleted from the customer file, the billing must be recalculated in order to reflect the removal of the account. Likewise, if a new account is added and it is to be included in the range of accounts at next billing, the bills must be recalculated in order to reflect the addition of the account.
Basic Processing Rule
It is a good idea to suspend all editing and transaction processing once billing is calculated. You may resume transaction processing and account editing once bills have been printed and updated. If you must process transactions or edit in order to correct an account's balance, address, etc., then you must recalculate to make sure that the changes are included in the billing you will be sending out.
Question: How do I Print Mailing Labels
WBAR has a built in label program that will allow you to from different label layouts and select labels by category. Click on Reports, Labels. You may preview the labels before printing them and use the page options in the viewer to select all pages or only certain pages to print.
Question: Can I Export WBAR Data Files to Use With Other Applications ?
Yes. When WBAR was designed, we realized that users might need to use the data in other applications. The dBASE data format used by WBAR is a standard supported by most application software developers. For this reason, it is usually a pretty simple process to read data from WBAR data files into another application.
Importing data into WBAR files is another matter and not recommended. WBAR uses many procedures to test and validate data before it goes into the files. Data imported directly into WBAR files would not benefit from this error checking and could cause the system to malfunction.
The most common use of exported data is when a user wants to merge a word processing document with the name and address fields of WBAR's customer data file. Word processors like Microsoft Word and Corel's Wordperfect, allow you to create a document with merge fields. You can then extract the data from the source data file and print your letters with the merged names, addresses, etc. .
Here are a few tips before attempting any file export or merger operation on WBAR files.
1. Make a backup of your data files before beginning or copy the data files to a new folder and then use the copied data files for your export/merge. That way, you do not risk damage to your live data.
2. Filtering records during an import is difficult. It is easier to import an entire file and then manipulate the records you want using the application that you imported the data into. Make sure you have enough memory and disk space to hold the file before you attempt to load it into your application.
3. WBAR data is stored using upper case letters. If your application allows it, you may want to change the name fields to use an upper case first letter and lower case for the remainder of the name.
4. The name and address billing information is stored in the MASTER.dbf file. This is usually the file that would be used to obtain current mailing information, balances, and consumption information.
5. Refer to the help file that came with the application you are trying to import data into. Some programs will use an explicit import command and others will make it a function of opening a file on your hard drive. Whichever way your program does it, be sure to identify the file type as DBF formatted data.
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