Drive User Manual – Relate Software

SYSTEM NAVIGATION

Main Menu & Navigation

DRIVE is arranged into modules which allow you to carry out all the functions you require in your daily work. Each of these modules is self-contained and can be accessed through buttons on the left-hand navigation toolbar of the main window. For example, the DRIVE Desktop module contains things like your diary, tasks and timesheets. The system is easy to navigate and the following section explains all the simple ways of getting around the system.

By clicking the My Communications section, the options available are displayed, as shown in Figure 2 below.

Like other systems, there are several methods a user can adopt to navigate through the system. To add a new client, select the “New” button (circled), as shown in Figure 3

Alternatively, the toolbar at the top of the main window provides another method to navigate around DRIVE. For example, you have the “File” option, which allows the user to select the “New” option as shown in Figure 4 below.

Furthermore, you can right click on the program main window and select the option “New” as shown in Figure 5 below.

If you select the Client & Contact Database, by clicking “New” through any of the three methods, the same screen will appear to enter a new client/contact, as shown in Figure 6 below.

Search & Sorts

If you want to search for a client, just start typing the name of the client while the cursor has any client highlighted on the Client & Contact screen i.e. Flats Limited and a search facility (called Fast Search) will appear on the screen, as shown in Figure 7 below.

Alternatively, to perform a search, select ‘File’ and then ‘Find’ or click the search shortcut icon as shown in screen below. Note the extra search field appears above the client list, as shown in Figure 8.

Type the name of the client or contact that you wish to find i.e. Flats Limited in the ‘Find’ text field, as shown Figure 9 below.

There are now two further options available:
Select all fields: includes all fields that are displayed as columns on the browse when performing the search

Search anywhere in field: this search function will look for the user’s specified criteria e.g. if you do not know the full name of the client/contact, just type in part of the name i.e. flats

Clicking the Find button and the following screen will appear.

As we can see from Figure 10, one result was found from the search. To display this result, double click on the entry i.e. Flats Limited. However, depending on the search, there could be several results found, just select one from the list.

To perform another search, just click the ‘Clear’ button and enter the new search criteria. To remove the search field from the program window, click the ‘Find’ button and it will remove the panel.

Another way of searching for a client is to sort the column you wish to search for into alphabetical order. For example, if we want to order the ‘Code” field, just click the Code column header.

The field values are ordered in sequence and a pointer is placed on the field name to indicate which field is currently the selected field.

A further method of sorting is to right click on the field heading i.e. Code Field and select ‘Sort by Ascending’ or by ‘Descending’ as shown in Figure 12.

Filters

Another way of finding information is by using a ‘Filter’. To switch on a filter, right click on the column field that you wish to filter. For example, in Figure 13, we wish to filter the Business Type. When the drop down list appears, select ‘Switch on Filter’ from the list.

After clicking the ‘Switch on Filter’ option, a drop down arrow is added to the field header of the Business Type column (circled), as shown in Figure 14 and you will get a list of business types to filter by.

Field/Column Chooser

This option allows you to specify which columns appear on the main window. In Figure 15, we can see a number of columns are in view i.e. Code, File As, Phone, Mobile, Entity Type and Type. If you want additional fields displayed in Client & Contact window, right click on the field heading and the following screen appears.

Click on column chooser and the following screen appears.

Select the column ‘Year End in the ‘Available Columns’ box and then click ‘Add’. The ‘Year End” now appears in the ‘Show these columns in this order’ box as shown in Figure 17 below.

Now click OK and the ‘Year End column is added (circled) to the Client & Contact window as shown in Figure 18 below.

Grouping

This option allows you to specify data you want by grouping the data into categories. For example, we want to group clients by their ‘Business Type’. To do this, right click on the field header “Business Type” and choose “Group by this column” from the drop down list that appears as shown in Figure 19.

After selecting Group by this column, the following screen appears. It groups the “Business Types” of all the Clients & Contacts as shown in Figure 20.

To switch off this grouping option, just drag the “Business Type” button back onto the field toolbar.

Colour Themes

This option allows you to change the look of Drive. To apply a theme for your own desktop Drive, choose any Theme from the dropdown list from the menu bar. For example, we want to change to theme X-Mas 2008 Blue and my client browse looks like

setting up drive

Drive Settings is a powerful tool to customize the use of every module and extend Drive functionality.

Lookups

Use Lookups option to enter standard repetitive information. To enter Look up details, go to Tools  Lookups. Lookups window appears.

The tree view on the left hand side shows the different lookup categories available. Click the lookup name in the tree view. The lookup details appear.

There are certain Lookups, which are called standard Lookups and data is entered in them in a similar fashion. These are:

Books In Status, Books In Type, Business Type, Campaign Type, Client Category, Client Source, Communication Status, Communication Type, Contact Type, Country, Department, Entity Type, Client Account Payment Type, Client Account Receipt Type, Client Account Transfer Type, Client Category, Client source, Deadline Status, Job Category, Marital Status, Name Suffix, Name Title, Position, Qualification, Services, Staff Category, Supplier Category, and Supplier Type.

In case of standard Lookups, enter the lookup name (that you want to add to the list), in the box. Click Add. The lookup is added to the list and will be available for future reference.

To edit a standard lookup entry, click Edit. The entry is displayed in the box. Make the necessary changes. To delete a lookup entry from any of the standard Lookups, select the lookup entry and click Delete. The program will reconfirm with you as to whether you would like to delete the entry. Click yes, to confirm deletion.

Example of a standard lookup Business Type is given below:

Enter a new business type in the box provided and click Add. The new business type is added to the list.

Click Edit / Delete to modify / delete the selected business type.

There are certain Lookups called non-standard Lookups and data is entered in them in a similar fashion. These are: Client Status, County, Default Job, Job Status, Job Type, Office, Solicitor, Staff Grade, Staff Status, Tax Office/VAT Office, and Town/City.

In case of non-standard Lookups, select the lookup name from the tree view. Click Add. The respective screens for entering the Lookups appear.

To edit a non-standard lookup entry, click Edit. The details for the lookup are displayed in the respective window. Make the necessary changes and click OK.

To delete a lookup entry from any of the non-standard Lookups, select the lookup entry and click Delete. The program will reconfirm with you as to whether you would like to delete the entry. Click yes, to confirm deletion.

The Non-Standard Lookups are as follows:

Client Account Status and Job Account Status

Client Account Status defines whether Drive client is allowed to posting transactions. There are four system defined Account Status. They are: Active, Closed, Suspend, suspend override. You can set different status. Click Client Account Status in the tree view. The client account status information appears.

Click Add to add a new status. The Add Client Account Status window appears.

Enter the following details:

Status Description

Enter the client account status description.

Posting Action

Select the action from the drop-down list that is to be taken when the specified status is selected for a client. The different actions you can select from are: Allow Posting, Deny Posting or Warn Before Posting Click OK to save the client account status.

Click Edit / Delete to modify / delete the selected client account status. Similarly Job Account Status can be defined.

Country

You can add the name of the country the database will have and to which the county belongs, from the drop-down list. You can also click Country to display the standard Select Country lookup window. From here you can add a new country.

County

County needs to be filled up while providing address details. This is an important field for printing Statement, Bill and Credit Note.

Click ‘County’ in the tree view. The county information appears. Click Add to add a new county. The Add County window appears.

Enter the name of the county and select the name of the country from the drop down list or from the lookup. It is advisable to enter the country name before adding the county name.

Default Job

You can create default Jobs that Drive will use while creating Jobs for Clients. To create Default Jobs, go to Click Default Job in the tree view.

Click Add. The Add a default Job window is displayed.

Enter the following details:

Job Type, Code, Description, Default Billing Code, Default VAT Rate, WIP Discount (%), Cost Centre, Office, Partner, Department, Manager, Lead Staff.

Note that, Office, Department and Manager Boxes are enabled or disabled depending on the options set under Tools  Settings  General  Setup. More over Job Type has to be defined beforehand.

Click Edit / Delete to modify / delete the selected default job.

Job Type

Job type is required while creating Jobs/ Default Jobs for Clients. To create a Job Type, click Job Type in the tree view. The job type information appears.

Click Add to add a new type of job. The Add Job Type window appears.

Enter Job Type and Cost Centre. Cost Centre appears only when ‘Use Cost Centre’ checkbox is selected from Settings or Practice decides to use Cost Centre.

Select the cost centre to which you want to link the job type from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Cost Centre link to display the Cost Centre lookup. You can add a new cost centre from here or select an existing one.

If a default cost centre is defined under Tools -> Settings -> Nominal -> Control/Default Codes, it is displayed here.

Select the services applicable to the job type by selecting the check boxes. Click OK to save the job type created. Click Edit / Delete to modify / delete the selected job type.

Office

Office option will appear in look up Click Office in the tree view. Click Add to add a new office. The Add an Office window appears.

Enter Name, Default Billing Code, Town / City and Address.

Enter the office address, using up to 256 characters. There are three different addresses that can be added: Business, Registered Office and Others. Select from drop down option to add the respective address.

Solicitor

Click Solicitor in the tree view. The solicitor information appears.

‘Show details’ button displays the relationship of client with the selected Solicitor. To add a new solicitor record, click Add to add a new solicitor. The Add a Solicitor window appears.

Enter the necessary details such as Solicitor Name, File As, Address, Town / City, County, Country, Post Code, Phone, Mobile, Fax , E-Mail, Web, More.... , Contact 1, Position, Contact 2, Position. Click OK to save the solicitor details.

Click Edit / Delete to modify / delete the selected solicitor.

Staff Grade

Click Staff Grade in the tree view. The staff grade information appears. Click Add to add a new staff grade. The Add Staff Grade window appears. Enter Grade Description and New Rate From.

Select the date the rates will be effective from. Click the drop-down list to display the calendar from where you select the date.

If the date you select is a future date, then two tabs are displayed (current and future), for you to enter the charge out rates and cost rates. By default, only one tab is displayed (current).

Charge-Out Rate

Enter the charge-out rate. The time sheet postings routine uses the date entered in ‘New Rate From’ to determine which set of charge-out rates (current or future) to use.

You can define up to nine charge-out rates for each of the current and future rates, for each staff grade.

Cost Rate

Enter the cost rate. You can define up to nine cost rates for each of the current and future rates, for each staff grade. Cost rate 1 is always mandatory since a staff member must have at least one cost rate. Other cost rates are mandatory where the corresponding charge-out rate is not zero.

Mileage

Enter the mileage rate applicable to the staff in this grade. Mileage is the transport cost the staff of a grade can claim through expense.

Transfer Rate

Enter the transfer rate here. If the staff member works on behalf of another department, the system will charge the staff member out to that department at this rate.

Staff Status

Drive defines four ‘Status’ for Staff. Active, Closed, Suspend, Suspend override. A Staff having status set to close can no longer login to Drive. If a staff with Status ‘admin’ is created in Drive, it will be considered as an Administrative Staff and Dashboard will exclude this staff from its records. To create other user defined ‘Status’, click Staff Status in the tree view. The staff status list appears.

Click Add to add a new staff status. The Add Staff Status window appears.

Enter the following details:

Status Description

Enter staff status description. This will appear in Status drop down in Staff dialog.

Posting Action

Select the action from the drop-down list that is to be taken when the specified status is selected for a staff.

The different actions that you can select from are: Allow Posting, Deny Posting or Warn Before Posting. Click OK to save the staff status.

Click Edit / Delete to modify / delete the selected staff status.

Supplier Account Status

Click Supplier Account Status in the tree view. The supplier account status list appears.

Click Add to add a new supplier account status. The Add Supplier Account Status window appears.

Enter Status Description, Posting Action

Select the action from the drop-down list that is to be taken when the specified status is selected for a staff.

The different actions that you can select from are: Allow Posting, Deny Posting or Warn Before Posting.

Tax Office/ VAT Office

Click Tax Office in the tree view. The tax office information appears. Click Add to add a new tax office. The Add a Tax Office window appears.

Enter Office Name, Mobile, File As, Address, Town / City, County, Post Code, Country, Phone, Fax, E-Mail, Web, More...., Contact 1, Position, Contact 2, Position, VAT Office.

Town/City

Click Town / City in the tree view. The town / city information appears. Click Add to add a new town / city. The Add Town / City window appears.

Enter City, County, Country

Select the name of the country to which the county belongs, from the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can also click Country to display the standard Select Country lookup window. From here you can add a new country as mentioned earlier.

There are certain Lookups, which can be opened by clicking the link given. These are: Activity, Banker, Credit Terms, Currency, Name and Address, Standard Notes, VAT Rate, WIP Discount.

In case of Lookups that are opened by clicking the link, click the Add button from the respective lookup windows. The window for entering the lookup details appears.

The Lookups obtained by clicking links are as follows:

Activity

You can add new column ‘activity’ in timesheet window, to further describe the time records. To enable the option, select Tools Settings  General  setup option. Select ‘Use Activities’ checkbox. After enabling, Activity look up appears in lookup list.

To add Activity in the tree view. Click the link to display the activity lookup. The Select Activity window appears.

Click Add to add a new activity. The Add an Activity window appears.

Activity Code, Description

Banker

Choose Banker in the tree view. Click ‘Click here to display Banker Lookup’. The Bankers window appears.

To add a new bank details, click the Add option. Enter Bank Name, Branch Name, Sort Code and File As.

Address

Enter the bank’s address, using up to 256 characters. There are three different addresses that can be added: Business, Other-1 and Other-2. Click the individual tab to add the respective address.

Town / City

Select the town or city from this drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Town/City lookup to display the Select Town/City window.

County

Select the county from this drop-down list. Alternatively, click the County lookup to display the Select County window.

Post Code

Enter the post code for the county.

Country

Select the name of the country to which the county belongs, from the drop-down list.

Alternatively, you can also click Country to display the standard Select Country lookup window. From here you can add a new country as mentioned earlier.

Phone

Enter the office’s main telephone number. Click the link to display the Check Phone Number window. Here, enter the numbers for country / region, city / area, then the local number and finally the extension. Click OK. The numbers entered are reflected in the phone box.

Mobile

Enter the mobile number here. Click the link to display the Check Mobile Number window. Here, enter the number for the country / region and then the local number. Click OK. The numbers entered are reflected in the mobile box.

Fax

You can record a fax number here. Click the link to display the Check Fax Number window. Here, enter the numbers for country / region, city / area, then the local number and finally the extension. Click OK. The numbers entered are reflected in the fax box.

E-Mail

If the office has access to e-mail, you can enter the e-mail address here.

Web

Enter the office’s website address here, if any. The web address will automatically launch the web site if you are online.

More....

Click this button to display the Phone / Fax / E-Mail / Web window. Here, you can add two phone numbers, two mobile numbers, one fax number, two e-mails, a web address and two other contacts in addition to the existing numbers.

Contact 1

Enter the name of the main contact for the office.

Position

Enter the main contact’s position.

Contact 2

Enter the name of the second contact for the office.

Position

Enter the second contact’s position.

Click OK to save the tax office details.

Click Edit / Delete to modify / delete the selected tax office.

Cost Centre

Practice can choose to use cost centre in transactions. To use the option, enable ‘Use Cost Centre’ checkbox from settings. Cost centre Look up appears in lookup list. Default cost centres can be defined from look up.

Click Cost Centre in the tree view. Click the link to display the cost centre lookup.Click Add. The Add a Cost Centre window appears.

Enter Cost Centre Code and Cost Centre Name. When Cost centre is used in transaction and reports, Cost centre Code appears in Reports and Dialogs.

Credit Terms

Credit term is the number of days after which a Purchase or sales invoice is due to be paid. Click Credit Terms in the tree view. Click the link to display the credit terms lookup. The Select Credit Terms window appears.

Click Add to add a new credit term. The Credit Terms window appears.

Enter Description, No. of Days i.e., the number of days of credit the client has allowed.

Multi Currency

Practice needs to register for Multicurrency transaction. Once registered, Currency lookup appears in the look up list. Click Currency in the tree view. Click the link to display the currency lookup. The Currencies window appears.

Click Add to add a new currency. The Add Currency window appears.

Enter Code, Description

Symbol

Enter a symbol for the currency.

Click Rates from the Currencies window to define the exchange rate of the currency selected to the base currency. The Currency Rates window appears.

Click New to add the exchange rate. The Currency Rate window appears.

Enter Start Date for Rate, Finish Date for Rate and Currency Rate (the exchange rate of the selected currency to the base currency).

Name and Address

You can look into all the names that Drive has saved as Client, Prospect, Contact or Supplier though the name look up. It shows contact name of a staff. Click Name and Address in the tree view. Click the Name Lookup link to display the Names window. A list of used names is displayed.

Click Delete to delete the selected name from the list. You will be allowed to delete only unused name.

Click ‘Show Detail’ button to display the relationship of the selected names with clients and contacts. The entities that use the name are displayed.

Select the ‘Mark unused Names in Red’ check box to display all names, which have not been used in the program in red.

Select the ‘Show unused Names only’ check box to display the names in the look up which have not been used in the data. Select ‘Delete Unused Names’ Button to delete these unused names from the database.

Similarly, click the Address lookup link to display the Addresses window. A list of addresses appears in the lookup.

The Find, Clear, Add, Edit, Delete and Show Detail buttons work in the same way as those for Name lookup.

Select the ‘Mark unused Names in Red’ check box to display all the names, which have not been used in the program in red.

Select the ‘Show unused Addresses only’ check box to display the unused addresses only.

Standard Notes

Notes appearing in Statements, Click Standard Notes in the tree view. Click the link to display the Standard Notes lookup.

The Standard Notes window appears. Click Add to add a new Standard Notes. The Add a Note window appears.

VAT Rate

Invoices, Credit Notes, Payments and Receipts can be raised for Clients and Suppliers respectively by adding standard VAT rates for different products and services. These VAT rates can be set through lookups. VAT rates appear in Invoices, Credit notes, non client receipts and non supplier payments

Click VAT Rate in the tree view. Click the link to display the VAT Rate lookup. The VAT Rate window appears.

Click Add to add a new VAT code. The Add a VAT Code window appears.

Enter VAT Code, Description and VAT Rate (%). Note, the VAT code can be anything from A - Z

WIP Discount

Click WIP Discount in the tree view. Click the link to display the WIP Discount lookup. The WIP Discount window appears.

Click Add to add a new WIP Discount. The WIP Discount window appears.

Enter Description, Discount (%)

User Access Groups

Defining User Access Groups

From the Tools menu, choose the User Access Groups option. The Access Groups window appears listing all of the available groups.

In the box provided, enter the following:

Access Group

Enter the name of the access group in this box.

The tree view on the left hand side shows the different settings available under the different headings. By default, all will be selected in each section.

‘Select All’ button helps to select all options in each section.

‘Unselect All’ button helps to disable and disallow any option in each section. Select Access check box to enable other options for access rights in each pane.

Under ‘Data Selection’, select the type of data that you would like users of the particular group to have to access. Select the type of Client or Staff, Communication, Scanned Documents and Events/Tasks/Meetings you would like the users to access.

Under Access Functions, you can define the following:

Select Client from Access Function tree view. You can select from Client Section-Access, New, Edit, Delete, WIP Ledger, Fees Ledger, Contact, Print options and also from Jobs Section/ Links Section.

Select Staff from Access Function tree view. You can select from Staff Section-Access, New, Edit, Delete, Print, Contact, Access Groups, Display Charge out Rates options and also from Staff Grades Section.

Select Communication from Access Function tree view. You can select from Phone Section -Access, New, Edit, Delete, Print options and also from Phone Section/ Fax Section/ Email Section/ SMS Section/ Memo Section/ Document Section. Moreover, you can select ‘Access All Communication’ checkbox, to allow group to view all communications browse. Select ‘Access Communications Settings’

Select Suppliers from Access Function tree view. You can select from Supplier Selection -Access, New, Edit, Delete, Print, Contact, Supplier Ledger options.

Select WIP Ledger from Access Function tree view. You can select from Time Sheets Section- Access, New, Edit Before Passing, Delete Before passing, Edit After Passing, Delete After Passing, Pass, Print options and also from Expenses Section/ Indirect Expenses Section. Select Time Manager option to view Time manager in Week View Format.

Select from Write-off Section- Access, New, Edit, Delete options and also from WIP Journal Section/ WIP Analysis Section. Select WIP Allocation for access to WIP allocation for the user group.

Select Fees Ledger from Access Function tree view. You can select from Bills Section -Access, New, Edit, Delete, Print option s and also from Credit Notes Section/ Fees Journal Section. Select Regenerate option, to allow Bill Section to the user group. Select

Select Purchase Ledger from Access Function tree view. You can select from Purchase Invoice Section- Access, New, Edit, Delete options and also from Purchase Credit Notes Section/ Purchase Journals Section. Select Allocation option to allow Purchase Allocation Section to the user group.

Select Bank and Cash from Access Function tree view. You can select from Receipts Section - Access, New, Edit, Delete option and also from Payments Section/ Bank Transfer Section. Select Access option, to allow Bank Reconciliation Section to the user group.

Select Nominal Ledger from Access Function tree view. You can select from Nominal Accounts Section - Access, New, Edit, Delete options and also from Nominal Accounts Section/ Nominal Journals Section/ Accruals section /Prepayments Section. Select Print option from Nominal Accounts Section to allow printing of Nominal Account.

Select Reports from Access Function tree view. Each name has a Modify and a View check box to allow access group to change or view a report. Click on All checkbox, to set Modify Report/ View Report option to the access group.

Select Other from Access Function tree view. You can select from Job Plan Section - Access, New, Edit, Delete options and also from Job Plan Section/Bill/CreditNoteTemplate Section/Campaign Section/Data Mining Section/ Bill/Credit Note Paragraph Section. You can select from Template Section- Email, Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement options. You can also select from Other Section- Year-End, Clear-Outs, Recalculation, Settings, Data Integration, Multi Currency Setup, Change Database, Registration, Synchronise with Outlook, Lookups, Validation Check, Create New Report, Delete a Report and Mail Merge options.

Select Recurring Entries from Access Function tree view. You can select from Recurring Bill Section - Access, New, Edit, Delete, Generate options and also from Recurring Purchase Invoice Section/ Recurring Receipt Section/ Recurring Payment Section/ Recurring Nominal Journal Section/ Recurring Job Section/ Recurring Accrual Section/ Recurring Prepayment Section.

Select Scanned Documents from Access function tree view. You can select from Scanned Document Section- Access, Scan, Index, Delete, Print options.

Select Deadline Management from Access function tree view. You can select from Deadline Management Section- Access, New, Edit, Delete options.

Select Events/Task/Meetings from Access function tree view. You can select from Events/Task/Meetings Section - Access, New, Edit, Delete, Print options.

Select Client Accounting from Access function tree view. You can select from Bank Section - Access, New, Edit, Delete options and also from Client Payments Section/ Client Receipts Section/Client Transfers Section. Select Bank Reconciliation option to allow access to the user group.

6. Click OK to save the access details.

Staff Access Rights

When you enter the system for the first time, you will have to use the default System Administrator’s access rights and password. Once Access Groups have been defined, they can be applied to individual staff. Using the access rights, you can define access rights for an individual staff member in order to specify which functions the staff is allowed to perform.

Defining Staff Access Rights

1. From the Tools menu, choose Staff Access Rights option. The Define Staff Access Rights window appears.

Staff Access Rights

Settings

Setup Practice Details

In this section, provide Practice Name, Business Address along with practice E-Mail and Website. This information is used in generation of Reports.

If Practice has registered Drive for Multi-currency then Instead of Currency Symbol, Currency look up will be displayed as below

If you wish to display Practice VAT number in Printing VAT Invoice and Bill, provide the number in the text area provided.

General Setup

Default Settings section will allow you to add or remove extra information to the transaction made through Drive.

Setting Up Activities

While adding timelines in a timesheet, setup Activities to add more detail to the Work (WIP). To Enable Activity, go to Tools Settings  Setup. From Default Settings, select ‘Use Activities’ checkbox.

To Setup default Activity, go to Tools  Lookups. Select Activity from the tree. Click the hyperlink to open the Activities look up.

Add the activities you would like to be set for entering time and expense records. Click Add, to Add an Activity.

Enter Code and Description of Activity. Timesheet and Expense Dialog will refer each Activity by its code. An extra column of Activity will appear in the timesheet and in Expense once it is enabled from settings.

Use Manager Details Link

To activate manager link, go to Tools Settings  Setup. From Default Settings, select ‘Use Manager’ checkbox. Select ‘Use Managers’ checkbox, Staff window shows manager link. Managers of the staff can be chosen from the staff list whose position is manager. Job Browse will also show manager link. Here you can set date range of Job managers.

Use departments And Offices In Setting Up Client Details

When The Practice handles clients under several departments, offices and by several managers then you can add details of Departments, Offices and Managers in Client, Staff and Job Details. To use Offices, departments, managers select the respective checkboxes from ToolsSettingsSetup. From Default Settings, select Use Offices/ Use Managers/ Use Departments.

After enabling the options, Go to ToolsLook ups to add Offices. Add Offices of the Practice in the window

Use Recurring Job

You can create recurring Jobs for a client. To Enable Recurring Job option, go to Tools Settings  Setup. From Default Settings, select Use Recurring Jobs checkbox.

After enabling the Recurring Job option, an Icon will be added in Client and Browse Toolbar.

How to Hide Closed Clients From Client Browse

Once Client Account Status is set ‘Closed’ by a staff, select this option to hide the client name from appearing in Client Browse. To do this, go to Tools Settings  Setup. From Default Settings, select Hide Closed Clients checkbox.

How to Hide Closed Jobs From Job Browse

Once Job Account Status is set ‘Closed’ by a staff, select this option to hide the Job name from appearing in Job Browse. To do this, go to Tools Settings  Setup. From Default Settings, select Hide Closed Jobs checkbox.

How To Mark a document that needs to be published

You can select ‘Use Publish Tick box for Document’ to mark a document has has to be published. To setup Publish Document, go to Tools Settings  Setup. From Default Settings, select checkbox ‘Use Publish Tick box for Document’.

Once, selected go to All communications, Documents. Create a new Document or open an existing document. The Publish tick box will appear in the Document window as below:

You can choose to select publish from column chooser in the document browse to see which documents are to be published. The selected documents will be marked with ‘Yes’ in the Document browse.

Furthermore, you can perform data mine on these documents and extract them programmatically to upload those documents into practice website.

Use Address Link

Select this Checkbox, if you want to update addresses which are shared between multiple clients. To do this, go to Tools Settings General Setup and from the right pane, select ‘Use Address Link’ check box.

Open a client and click on the address link, the select address dialog will open.

Select the appropriate address you wish to update. After updating the address select ok button to save the address. On save, the following message appears.

Select yes to create a new address, instead of updating all the existing addresses. Select No to update all the existing addresses with the change.

Derive Web from Email

You can integrate Skype with Drive. You can call clients and contacts through Drive using Skype ID. To setup, go to ToolsSettings Setup. From Default Settings, select ‘Use Skype’ checkbox. Restart Drive, you will be prompted with the message:

Go to Client window, and provide Skype ID details in ‘More’ section under general tab.

Drive will allow you to call Contact using Skype ID.

Setup Cost Centre for Transaction

To setup Cost Centre wise transaction, you need to enable cost centre functionality from Settings. Go to Tools  Settings General Setup. Select Use Cost Centre Check box.

Now, setup Cost centre Codes and Description from Tools  Lookups  Cost Centre.

To add Cost Centre, click Add button. In the Add a Cost Centre Window below, enter Cost Centre Code and Cost Centre Name.

Hit Ok to save the record.

After enabling Cost centre, you will be allowed to split nominal Cost centre. To split a nominal Account, go to Nominal Ledger. Select a Nominal Account Open the desired Account. For example, Nominal Account for Fees will look like:

Click the Cost Centre Breakdown button and you will be allowed to set up nominal cost centre split for a particular account as below:

Open the Job window of a client and set the cost centre for job.

Clients having Job Cost Centre split will be able to raise Bill and Credit Notes for different cost centre. Note, Job Cost Centre should match with nominal cost centre while billing.

Cost Centre split is also effective for Supplier transactions. Further Details, check Supplier.

Use Sub Contact as a General Contact

Choose to include Sub contacts of Drive clients to appear in Client and Contact Browse using the options available in the drop down menu.

Select Auto-All to add all sub contacts as contact in Drive Client and Contact browse. Similarly, you can choose Auto name, Ask-All, Ask-Name, Never options to restrict adding Contact names to Client and Contact browse.

How to Use Default Job

You can setup drive in a way that whenever a client is created default jobs will be created too. To do this, go to Tools Settings  Setup. From Default Settings, select ‘Use Default Job’ check box.

Select Always, On Request, or Never from ‘Use Default Job‘option.

Select Always to add jobs every time a client is created. You should have the default jobs created in the system. To create Default Jobs, go to Tools Lookups Click here to open Default Jobs.

Click on the link and Add the default Jobs. The Jobs entered here will appear automatically in the Job Tab of Client Dialog whenever a Client is created with ‘Always’ option selected in Settings.

Select On Request option if you want user to decide which Jobs to add with the client, and from the default Job window as shown below select the desired Jobs.

This option will allow user to decide jobs to enter while creating a client.

How to setup WIP Budget, fees budget, WIP Limit and Fees Limit

You can set up transaction If WIP budget exceeded, fees. To do this, go to Tools Settings  Setup. From Default Settings, go to ‘If WIP Budget exceeded’ drop down menu and select ‘warn’, ‘stop’ or ‘ignore’ option.

Note: Similar Setup can be done for Fees budget exceeded, WIP limit exceeded and fees limit exceeded.

If you set up ‘warn’ in settings, system will generate a warning message as soon as the WIP/Fees total amount exceeds the amount in setup. On the other hand, if ‘stop’ is entered, then the system will stop the user from entering WIP/ Fees once the limit has reached. The error message that will appear will be as follows:

Lastly, if ‘Ignore’ option is selected, then the system will allow the user to enter WIP/Fees amount even after the mentioned Limit has been reached.

WIP budget can be set from Client Dialog. Go to the Practice tab of Client Dialog, and provide Fees budget, Fees Limit, WIP Budget, WIP Limit and save.

If Warn is set in WIP limit then the following error message will appear.

Recurring entries generation option at the system startup

Client Address as default sub contact address

You can choose to populate Client address in address field of sub-contact as default address. To setup, go to Tools  Settings  Setup  General Setup, and select the checkbox ‘Client Address as default sub contact address’.

Now, create a Client with address details as below:

Go to Contact tab and create a new Contact. The Contact window will appear as below:

User can change Password

After installing Drive for the first time, System Administrator may choose to allow individual user to setup his own password. To enable this functionality, go to Tools  Settings  Setup  General Setup, and select the checkbox User Can Change Password. Then the login screen will look like this:

Now, the user can select the ‘Change Password Link and enter new password in the following dialog.

Enhanced linked client functionality

You can select ‘Enhanced Linked Client Functionality’ to generate bills for all jobs for a group of companies through a single bill, irrespective of the fact that one is a parent company and the other is a child company. The functionality is discussed in detail in Client section.

To setup, go to Tools Settings Setup General Setup and select ‘Enhanced Linked Client Functionality’ checkbox.

Keep Contact1 in Mail Merge

Sometimes in a database, Client name and name of the first contact is identical. Drive is designed to ignore such client name in mail merge, in order to avoid duplication. To select these client names, , go to Tools Settings Setup General Setup and select ‘Keep Contact1 in Mail Merge’ check box. Mail Merge will populate contact names which are taken from respective client names.

Configure Drive email server

Under Server Information

Enter the Incoming mail (POP3) server name, the Incoming mail (IMAP) server name, the POP port, the Outgoing mail (SMTP) server name and the SMTP port.

Select the path where the e-mail will be stored. Click Location to display the Browse For Folder dialog box. Select the path where you want to store the e-mails. Click OK. This path is displayed in the Location box.

Organise Email Storage

You can organize emails in the hard disk by setting their locations through Drive in folders automatically. The folders will be automatically created through Drive Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, or None. To organize Email, go to Tools  Settings  Staff  E-Mail/ SMS Settings. From Mail Store, select the appropriate options.

setup sms account through drive

To send SMS from DRIVE, you need to subscribe to an SMS account. Under SMS Account Information,

Enter the Subscriber ID.

Enter the Subscriber Password.

To send SMS using a proxy server, select Use a proxy server for sending SMS check box. The fields below are enabled.

Enter the Proxy Server Address and Port.

Enter the Proxy User Name and Password.

Click OK to save the SMS settings.

setup drive for staff diary

Drive Diary is an important feature where staff activities can be recorded properly. You can setup Staff working hours, Annual Holidays, and Public Holidays observed by the Practice through these settings. To setup Diary, go to Tools  Settings  Staff Diary. In the right pane, enter Working Hour from, Working Hour To, Lunch Hour From, Lunch Hour To. Select the appropriate public holidays from the list (these days will be marked as public holidays in the staff diary for the current year.

setup auto code structure for client, job and staff

Select the Use Automatic Code Generation check box, if you want the Client Codes/ Staff codes/ Job Codes to be automatically generated by the system, when entering Client/ Staff/ Job General Details. Each code may be broken up into several segments.

For Example: while generating Staff Code automatically, it can be based on seven criteria: surname, forename, office, partner, department, manager and a unique number. This unique number may be system unique or it may be code unique.

setup mandatory/ default values in staff, client, job and supplier master information

Click Staff Default Values/Mandatory Fields in the tree view. The default values/mandatory field’s information appears.

Enter the Default Values for the fields you want. These values are displayed when you enter a new staff.

Select the Mandatory box against the field name. You must enter information (when setting up a staff) into all those boxes that are selected.

The above is also true in case of client mandatory fields, job mandatory fields and supplier mandatory fields.

For example, select Office as a ‘Mandatory’ field with Default value ‘Dublin’. Now go to staff browse and create new staff. You will see ‘Office is marked as mandatory with a * mark. Please note, that Drive has several system defined mandatory fields and fields cannot be set as optional by users.

setup folder structure to automatically save client’s merged document

settings for wip entries

Settings for Staff Time measurement

Select the Time Measurement from the drop-down list. It can be either ‘Hours and Minutes’, ‘Decimal Hours’ or ‘Time Units’. For Hours and Minutes time entry in timesheet will be real time, say 9hr 30 minutes will 9.30 units where as for decimal hours it will 9.5 units and for time units it will be 38.67 unit ( if 1 unit = 15 minutes)

Enter the Minutes Per Time Unit if Time Units has been selected.

Select the Time Sheet Batch Period from the drop-down list. It can be any of the following: Daily, Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly or None.

Select ‘Round Off Time Sheet Amount’ check box if you want to round off all time sheet amounts. (i.e., staff rate * units worked).

Select ‘Time Sheet in week Diary Format’ check box to view Time Sheet window in a week diary form. To enable this, go to Tools  Settings  WIP Ledger Setup. From the right pane choose the option. Note: to view this, set Batch period to Weekly option. If this option is ‘deselected’ the timesheet appears as below:

If ‘Time sheet in Week Diary format’ is selected then timesheet appears as below:

Select ‘Set Non-chargeable Time Value To Zero’ check box to display the Rate as zero in a non-chargeable time record.

Select ‘Put Default Cost Centre for staff in chargeable Time Records’ check box if you want the default cost centre for a staff to appear in a chargeable time record.

Select Auto Save Time Sheet check box if you want to save each entry in the time sheet automatically.

Select ‘Enforce Time Sheet Review’ checkbox, if you want the timesheets to be reviewed by seniors.

Once selected Timesheet appears as below:

How To Enable ‘Post Time lines for Prospective Clients’

Drive has the option to post time records for Prospective clients or ‘Prospects’. To enable this option, select ‘Allow Posting of WIP to Prospects’ from Tools  Settings  WIP Ledger  Setup.

Prospect dialog will appear with a WIP Ledger tab as below:

This is to be noted that, when Drive starts to Post Time to Prospect then Prospect will appear with a code ending with P. Once this option is enabled it cannot be reversed. To disable it, all prospects have to be removed from Drive database.

Setup drive to Enable Timesheet monitoring

Drive has the feature to monitor Staff Timesheets and generate messages to alert users to keep timesheets up to date. To enable this option, go to Tools  Settings  WIP Ledger and select ‘Enable Timesheet Monitoring’ Checkbox.

Enter Frequency of Checking and Tolerance in appropriate boxes. Tolerance will allow Drive to wait for the time to generate the alert message for the first time after Drive is opened. And the alert message will keep on appearing afterwards at the frequency mentioned.

Setup Control Codes for WIP transaction

When Drive is installed control codes will automatically be set in Drive database. WIP Control/ Default codes for all default accounts will automatically appear in the settings window. You can create and set up your own control and default accounts too.

How to Setup Control Codes for Staff Expenses

You can setup Control Codes for Staff expenses. Go to Tools  Settings WIP Ledger  Expense Control Setup.

Settings for Fees Entries

Settings for Bill/ Credit Note

You can setup path to store Generated Bills and Credit Notes automatically. To setup path, go to Tools  Settings  Fees Ledger  Bills/ Credit Note Setup.

Click on the ‘Generated Bill/ Credit Note Lookup’ link. The following Folder opens. You can select a path for storing printed Bills and Credit Notes as bellow. The path will be displayed in the Settings window. Drive will always save the generated bills in the defined path.

How to Setup WIP Description/ Notes in WIP Allocation Tab within Bill Dialog

You can choose to display WIP description, WIP Notes of each WIP entries in WIP Allocation tab. To setup WIP Description, go to Tools  Settings  Fees Ledger  Bills/ Credit Note Setup.

There are three options to choose: WIP Description, WIP Notes, Both. If either WIP Notes, Both are selected, then you can select the Word Wrap checkbox to allow viewing multiple line WIP Notes.

If ‘Both’ option is selected with Word Wrap checkbox selected, the WIP Allocation will appear as below:

Fees ledger Section allows you to customize transaction further:

You can choose to generate Proforma Bill by default. To setup, go to Tools  Settings  Fees Ledger  Bills/ Credit Note Setup.

From the Proforma Bill/Cr. Note drop down option select ‘On’. You can choose to select ‘Off’ or ‘Ask’, if you do not want to generate Proforma Bills at all, or if you want to generate both Proforma and Standard Bills respectively.

You can choose to create bills without considering WIP by default. To enable this, go to Tools  Settings  Fees Ledger  Bills/ Credit Note Setup. From the right pane, select Ignore WIP ‘On’. To allow WIP billing, select ‘Off’ from the drop down. If you choose to generate bill wither ways, select the option ‘Ask’. This will enable the Ignore WIP checkbox in Bill window as below:

Generate Auto- Recovery

Show Client Name on Linked Clients

Enable this option to show Client Name along with Client code in Linked Client Bills and Linked Client Credit Notes as below. If it is disabled, only Linked Client Code will appear along with Job code and Job description. To enable, go to Tools  Settings  Fees Ledger  Bills/ Credit Note Setup. From the right pane, select Show Client Name on Linked Clients checkbox.

Setup Draft Bill Option

Drive can generate draft bills/ credit notes which user can approve and review before signing off. A draft bill/ credit note will not have effect on client fees balance unless it is signed off. You can check the draft bill balance separately in client fees ledger. To generate draft bills, enable Draft Bill option. Go to Tools  Settings  Fees Ledger Draft Bill Setup. Select ‘Use Draft Billing’ Checkbox. You can choose to select ‘Review Bills’ and ‘Approve Bills’.

Whenever a Draft Bill/ Credit Note is generated, the Bill No is prefixed with ‘draft’ word to identify it in the bill/ credit note browse.

You can choose to remove prefix from Bill no. To enable Issue Numbers to Draft Bills, go to Tools  Settings  Fees Ledger Draft Bill Setup. Select the checkbox ‘Issue Numbers to Draft Bills’. In the figure above, the bill no 300128 is a draft bill generated with the ‘Issue Numbers to Draft Bills’ option On.

Generate Bill/Credit Note by Type

You can choose to generate Bill No/ Credit Note No automatically department wise or cost centre wise etc. To setup, go to Tools  Settings  Fees Ledger  Bills/ Credit Note Setup. Select appropriate option from Generate Bill/ Credit Note by Type. You can choose Type, overall, department, partner, Cost Centre or office. Select the number of digits the bill/credit note no will have after the prefix.

Note: For generating Bill No/ credit Note No based on Department/ CostCentre/ Office the respective check boxes Use Department/ Use Cost Centre/ Use Office should e selected from settings.

Settings for Bill Template

You can setup Template format in which Drive will create the Bill Templates. Drive supports MS Word and RTF format. You can create several Bill templates for different purposes and store them in a path. Just click on the links and identify the templates you want to use through Drive. For example: select the link ‘Standard with WIP’ and choose the template you wish to use for these types of bills. Similar settings can be done for credit notes also.

Settings for Lodgement/ Receipt entry

Drive can build Lodgement total for a batch of receipts in the lodgement window automatically depending on the settings. To enable Auto- Build Lodgement Amount, go to Tools Settings Fees Ledger and select Lodgement/Receipt Setup. From the lodgement group, select the checkbox.

To generate Lodgement No automatically, select Auto generate Lodgement No from the same window. You can choose to setup Lodgement number format from the options below. The lodgement number will be generated automatically and will appear disabled in the lodgement window as below:

Similarly, you can generate receipt number automatically. Select Auto-Generate Receipt No and design the number format in which the receipts will be generated.

Settings For Purchase Ledger

Drive can generate supplier codes automatically based on some rules set by the user. To generate codes automatically by the system, select the Use Automatic Code Generation check box, when entering Supplier General Details.

The supplier code is based on two criteria: supplier name and a unique number. This unique number may be system unique, i.e. it may be different for each supplier or it may be code unique, i.e. it is unique throughout the system.

Click Supplier Default Values/Mandatory Fields in the tree view. The default values/mandatory field’s information appears.

Enter the Default Values for the fields you want. These values are displayed when you enter a new supplier.

Select the mandatory box against the field name. You must enter information (when setting up a job) into all those boxes that are selected.

The above is also true in case of staff mandatory fields, client mandatory fields and job mandatory fields.

Click Supplier Other Information in the tree view. The other information appears.

You can define custom supplier other information that will appear on the Other Information tab of the supplier. You can use these to record information for suppliers that the system does not allow you to record by default.

Click Purchase Invoice in the tree view.

Select whether you would like to enter the net and let the gross amount be calculated for the purchase invoice or enter the gross amount and let the net be calculated, by selecting the relevant option.

Settings for Nominal Control Codes

Click Nominal Control/Default Codes in the tree view. The Nominal Control Code information appears.

The Control Codes that can be defined are Fees Ledger Control, Fees Ledger Discount, Proforma Debtors Control, VAT Control, Proforma VAT Control, Purchase Ledger Control, Purchase Ledger Discount, Linked Outlay Control, Accruals Control, Prepayments Control and Bad Debt Control.

The Default Codes that can be defined are Default Bank Account, Retained Profit Account, Default Cost Centre and Suspense Cost Centre.

Reports Settings

Integration

Since Drive, RAP, PTax, CTax share a common Client and contact database, you can integrate other Accounting Software, Tax Application software with Drive. Accounts Production can be integrated with other accounting software like Sage Accounts. To integrate go to Tools  Settings Integration. Select one of the following integration:

Click Integration in the tree view. The Data Integration routine allows synchronization of the client databases of the DRIVE and other applications like Accounts Production, Personal Tax, Corporation Tax, Company Secretary and Adest.

The Integration - Accounts Production Setup appears.

Select the name of the Accounts Production system for data integration from the drop-down list. Click Data Location to display the Browse for Folder dialog. Select the location of data and click OK.

The Integration - Personal Tax Setup appears.

Select the System of Personal Tax, which is to be integrated from the drop-down list. Click Data Location to display the Browse For Folder dialog. Select the location of data and click OK. Locate the Tax Return PDF File Location to display the Browse For Folder dialog. Select the location of PDF and click OK.

The Integration – Corporation Tax Setup appears.

Select the System of Corporation Tax, which is to be integrated from the drop-down list. Click Data Location to display the Browse for Folder dialog. Select the location of data and click OK.

The Integration - Company Secretary Setup appears.

Select the System of Company Secretary, which is to be integrated from the drop-down list. Click Data Location to display the Browse For Folder dialog. Select the location of data and click OK.

The Integration- Adest Setup appears.

Select the System of Adest, which is to be integrated from the drop-down list.

Click Data Location to display the Browse for Folder dialog. Select the location of data and click OK.

CLIENT & CONTACT DATABASE

The Client & Contact Database is a central and fundamental part of the DRIVE system. It is where all of your client information is viewed and maintained. All of the contact and sub contacts are added here. Account information as well as extra information is also held under this section.

The Job structure which your firm assigns will also be maintained under this section of the program. It is vital that you are totally conversant with this section of DRIVE. Job setup is vital and you cannot have clients without jobs so discuss this with a Relate consultant as part of the implementation process.

SetUp Client Access Rights

From the Tools menu, choose the User Access Groups option. The Access Groups window appears listing all of the available groups.

Click Add. The Access Group window appears. In the box provided, enter the following:

Enter the name of the access group in this box. Click Ok to save the Group rights. For example: you can create a Group for Partners, where you may give access to view all clients. Again, if you have several offices and each office has a separate partner, then you can select the option ‘all clients in my office’ then when you assign a partner in the same group, he will view in the clients and contacts browse clients whose office name matches with that of the Partner.

Under Data Selection, you can define the level of data access a user/ group can enjoy for a particular group. For example: if you de-select New option for the ‘Partner’, members of Partner group will not be allowed to create new Client records. But they will edit or delete or do other functions.

Client, Contact & Prospects

Go to Menu bar View Option choose Clients or from the Navigation Bar, go to DRIVE DesktopClient & Contact Database. The Client & Contact browse appears.

The Client & Contact Database Browse lets you view all your clients at a glance. The toolbar has the following options:

The New option displays the Add Client Details window and lets you enter a new client.

The Open option displays the Edit Client Details window and lets you edit the client details for the selected client.

The Delete option lets you delete a specific record.

The Print option lets you print the details of the selected record on the screen.

When you click the Find option, the Find window appears on top of the Client window. You type in some search information and click the Find Now button to begin the search.

The Other Information option is used to setup and store extra customized data for client and contacts.

The Jobs option is used to display the job tab page for the selected client and add new job details for that client.

The Recurring Jobs option is used to display the recurring jobs tab page for the selected client and add new recurring job details.

The Contacts option is used to display the contact tab page for the selected client or add new contacts for that client.

The Links option displays the Linked Clients window where all linked clients for the active client are displayed. You can also add new linked clients or delete existing ones from here.

The Communications option is used to display the communication tab page for the selected client and add new communication details for that client.

The Make a Phone Call option is used to add a phone call communication for a client by the login staff member.

The Skype Call option is used to call clients or contacts using Skype call facility.

The WIP Ledger option is used to view the WIP Ledger for the selected client.

The Fees Ledger option is used to view the Fees Ledger for the selected client.

The Job Plans option displays the Job Plans tab page for the selected client and adds new plans for that client.

The Client Status option displays the Client Status screen.

The XAPL option is used to export client information in XAPL format to a desired folder provided XAPL folder is setup in DRIVE beforehand.

The Mail Merge option displays the Select Mail Merge Document window from which you can choose a mail merge document for the selected client. You can also add a new document by clicking the Add button.

The Excel option is used to attach excel document with the selected client.

The Campaign option is used to view Campaign Details added for the client

The Books In Option is used to add details of Books and Documents received from the Client

Select the type of clients to view from the drop-down list. You can view Clients, Contacts, Prospects or All.

Click Fees Allocation to display the Fees Allocation window from where you can allocate previously unallocated receipts, credit notes or fees journals.

Click WIP Allocation to display the WIP Allocation window from where you can allocate previously unallocated bills.

Click Client Bank to display the list of bank names in which the client has an account.

Click Client Ledger to view the list of receipts, payments and bank transfers for the client.

Click Client Deadline Date Set up to view the list of deadlines for the client.

Click Fund Details to view the list of fund for that client.

Click Workflow option to add new workflow for the client or view existing workflow.

Click Trial Balance option to view Trial balance of the client. This will open trial balance only if the client is attached to RAP and has an account dataset defined.

Click Accounts Pages option to view Accounts Pages of the client. This will open Accounts Pages only if the client is attached to RAP and has an account dataset defined.

Click RAP, PTAX, CTAX, Cosec options to open the respective applications.

To change from the Client list to the Contact or Prospect list, click the dropdown as shown in the Figure 22.

General Information Tab

To create a new client, click the new button as outlined earlier and the add screen appears. The add screen has a number of tabs with various sections of information; simply click each tab to see what is contained.
The Client General Details window holds information such as Name, Address, Phone Numbers and other primary contact details.

To Enter Client details, go to Menu bar  View  Clients option. The Client browse appears. Click New. The Add Client Details window appears showing the General tab.

Enter the following details:

Client / Prospect / Contact

Select whether the entry being made is for a client, a prospect or a contact. If contact or prospect is selected, then only the following tabs are displayed: General, Practice, Other Information, Communications and Contacts.

Send E-Mails

Select the check box, if you want the client’s email-id in the email contact list

Synchronise with iPhone

Use this checkbox to synchronise contact entered through the client in Drive Client Contact details with iphone contact.

Note: When ‘Allow Posting of WIP to Prospect’ is enabled from Tools settings WIP Ledger, WIP Ledger tab appears for Prospect.

Entity Type

Select the entity type from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the entity type lookup to display the Select Entity Type window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

The following entity types are available: Company Limited By Guarantee, Company Limited By Shares, Individual, Limited Liability Partnership, Partnership, Sole Trader and Trust. The following tabs are depending on the chosen type of the Entity Type. If the Entity type is chosen Company Limited by Guarantee & Company Limited by Shares then Company No., CT Ref., VAT No., PAYE Ref. appears. If the Entity type Individual is chosen then NI No., UTR appears. If the Entity type is chosen Limited Liability Partnership then LLP Reg. No., UTR, VAT No., PAYE Ref. tab appears. If the Entity type is chosen Partnership & Trust then UTR, VAT No., PAYE Ref. tab appears. If the Entity type is chosen Sole Trader then NI No., UTR, VAT No., PAYE Ref. tab appears.

Client Code

This field is enabled only if a Client is being entered. Client codes can be either manual or automatic. These codes refer to clients only and not prospects or contacts. In case of automatic coding, each code may be broken up into several segments. The client code can be based on up to six criteria, i.e. client name, office, partner, department, manager and a unique number generated by the system. For further details, refer to the Settings section.

Other Ref

Enter any other reference for the client, if any.

Business Name

Enter the name of the business or organization. If a client with the specific name entered already exists, then the following Conflict Search window appears. This displays the client with the same name. Click OK or Cancel.

File As

The drop-down list shows variations on the name. Select any one from the list. This determines how the client will be indexed and how it can be found in searches.

Name

This is only applicable to sole traders. Enter the name of the sole trader. Clicking the lookup displays an additional screen to add details on the individual such as Gender, Title, Forename and Surname, salutations (both formal and informal).

Group

Enter the name of the company, which is under the same group. Clicking the lookup displays the Select Client window. Select the client and click OK.

Address

Enter the client’s address, using up to 256 characters. Click the individual tab to add the respective address.

If the entity type is Company Limited By Guarantee or Company Limited By Shares, the addresses that can be added are Business, Billing, Reg Office, Statement, Office1, Office2. If the entity type is Individual or Sole Trader, the addresses that can be added are Business, Billing and Home. If the entity type is Limited Liability Partnership, Partnership or Trust, the addresses that can be added are Business, Billing, Statement and Other1 and Other2.

Town / City

Select the town or city from this drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Town/City lookup to display the Select Town/City window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

County

Select the county from this drop-down list. Alternatively, click the County lookup to display the Select County window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Post Code

Enter the postcode.

Country

Select the country the client belongs to, from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Country lookup to display the Select Country window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Phone

Enter the client’s main telephone number. Click the link to display the Check Phone Number window. Here, enter the numbers for country / region, city / area, then the local number and finally the extension. Click OK. The numbers entered are reflected in the phone box.

Mobile

Fax

E-Mail

If the client has access to e-mail, you can enter the e-mail address here.

Web

Enter the business website address here. The web address will automatically launch the web site if you are online.

More....

Contact 1

Enter the name of the main contact of the business. Alternatively, click the Contact 1 lookup to display the Select Contact window. Select the name of the contact and click OK. We have an option by which Contact1 will automatically be automatically picked up from client name. Please refer to settings.

Position

Select the main contact’s position in the business. Alternatively, click the Position lookup to display the Select Position window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Contact 2

Enter the name of the second contact of the business. Alternatively, click the Contact 2 lookup to display the Select Contact window. Select the name of the contact and click OK.

Position

Select the second contacts’ position in the business. Alternatively, click the Position lookup to display the Select Position window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section. We have an option in Drive which will automatically pick up Contact1 in Mailing a bill or statement to Client, if the Position starts with a word ‘Accountant’.

Source

Select from the drop-down list, where the client heard of the practice. The source may be Another Practice, Direct, Marketing, Partner Contact and Staff Contact. Alternatively, click the Source lookup to display the Select Client Source window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Campaign

Select the campaign from the drop-down list. You can also click the lookup to add a new campaign or to edit an existing campaign entry. The campaign window, which appears on clicking the lookup, shows all those campaigns that have been defined under Campaigns.

Referred By

Enter the name of the person who has referred the client. Clicking the lookup displays the Names window. Select the name of the client or contact that may have referred the new client / prospect and click OK. This will let you keep a track of any client or contact that is bringing in new business regularly.

Original Partner

Select the name of the partner from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Partner lookup to display the Select Partner window. Select the name of the partner and click OK.

Take on Date

Enter the date the client was taken on.

Business Type

Select the type of business from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Business Type lookup to display the Select Business Type window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Year End

Enter the year-end date of the business. First select the year-end month and then the date.

Annual Return Date

Enter the annual return date of the business. First select the return date month and then the date. After the General Details have been entered, click the Practice tab to enter practice details for the client.

Below we will give an overview of the type of information contained on each of these Tabs. The General Tab contains basic standing data on the client such as client code, name, address, contacts details etc. All the information contained in these tabs can also be accessed through the client shortcut menus at the top of the Client and Contact database. The following screen will show you how to access the Fees/ Debtors Ledger of a client. If we click on this button, this will produce the same result as if you had selected the Fees Ledger Tab on the add/edit screen.

Practice Tab

The Practice Tab displays the Billing defaults, Fees and WIP limits, Practice hierarchy e.g. Partners, Managers, Lead Staff and the services used by this client. Office, Department and Manager Boxes are enabled or disabled depending on the options set under Tools Settings General Setup.

Default Billing Code

Select the default billing code applicable to this client. Click the lookup to see the nominal analysis codes. This code when setup will appear automatically when posting bills to this client. For further details, refer to the Nominal Ledger section.

Default VAT Rate

Select the VAT rate from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click Default VAT Rate to display the Vat Rates window. Select a VAT rate from the list.

Currency

Select the currency code for the client from the drop-down list. This will default to the base currency. Alternatively, click the Currency Code lookup to display the Select Currency window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Credit Terms

Select the credit terms applicable from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Credit Terms lookup to display the Select Credit Terms window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Settlement Days and Settlement Discount (%)

You can give your clients a discount for early payment. If payment is received within the number of days you enter here, your client can qualify for a discount.

If you want to offer this client an early settlement discount, enter the percentage amount in this box.

WIP Discount (%)

Select the WIP discount applicable from the drop-down list. This will allow you to offer discounts on WIP charge out rates. Alternatively, click the WIP Discount lookup to display the WIP Discount window. Select the WIP Discount you are looking for and click OK.

Statement Message

You can setup statement message for ageing of 30 Days, 60 Days, 90 Days, 120 Days and More. Statement message can be globally set for all clients in Tools  Settings  Reports  Setup. Here if a default statement is set, then <<statement message>> tag of template merge field will pick up default statement, or else it will display statement message for more than 30 days ageing if there is a non zero balance. Now if there are no global settings then statement picks up client level statement message settings.

Fees Limit

Enter the fees limit. This will allow you to define an amount at which the system will display a message stating that the limit has been reached.

Fees Budget \ WIP Budget

Enter a fees budget \ WIP Budget for the client or job. If a budget is entered in Job Plan, then Fees Budget Link or WIP Budget Link pick up the respective Budgets from Job Plans when you click on the link.

Fees Budget Date\ WIP Budget Date

Enter the date for the Fees \ WIP budget that has been defined.

Fees Provisions

Enter a fees provision for the client for the year.

Fees Provision Date

Enter the date for the fees provision that has been defined.

WIP Limit

Enter the WIP limit. This will allow you to define an amount at which the system will display a message stating that the limit has been reached.

WIP Provisions

Enter a WIP provision for the client or job.

WIP Provision Date

Enter the date for the WIP provision that has been defined.

Office

Select the office from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Office lookup to display the Select Office window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Partner

Use the drop-down list to select the partner. Alternatively, click the partner lookup to display the Select Partner window. Select the name of the partner and click OK.

Department

Use the drop-down list to select the department the client belongs to. Alternatively, click the Department lookup to display the Select Department window. For further details, refer to the Lookup section.

Manager

Use the drop-down list to select the manager. Alternatively, click the manager lookup to display the Select Manager window. Select the name of the manager from the window and click OK.

Lead Staff

Select the name of the lead staff member from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the lead staff member lookup to display the Select Staff window. Select the name of the lead staff member from the window and click OK.

Services Used

A list of all the services available is displayed here. Select all those services that the client is interested in.

Account Status

Select the account status of the client from the drop-down list. You can also define a status by clicking the lookup. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Reason

Enter the reason for the status selected.

Set By

Select which staff member took the decision to set the account status of the client / job / supplier. You can also select the name of the staff member from the Select Staff window, which appears on clicking the lookup.

Date Set

Enter the date the account status of the client was set.

Password

Enter the password for the individual client.

Confirm Password

Reenter the password once again, to confirm the entry.

Note: The fields marked by asterisk (*) are mandatory.

After the Practice Details have been entered, click the Personal tab if the client entity type is Individual or Sole Trader; else click the Other Information tab.

Other Information Tab

The Other Information Tab displays additional fields of information that you can setup yourself about the client. As you can see, many extra fields have been set up for this client Flats Limited e.g. Pipeline and Take-On Management, Promotions etc. It is important you consider any additional fields before you set them up. The system does not come with any defined extra detail fields.

Jobs Tab

The Jobs Tab displays all the jobs that you do for a client. As we can see, for this client jobs for Audit and Corporate Tax have been defined. Job codes can be defined by the practice.

The Toolbar in Jobs Tab

Communications Tab

The Communications Tab displays all the communications associated with this client. For example, as we can see from Figure 28, all client emails, memo’s, phone calls and documents are all stored in a centralised database, available to anybody with an appropriate user access level. This is a key screen in DRIVE and shows historically every communication with the client.

We can filter communications by selecting from the dropdown list of communication types. Red indicates an outstanding communication. Black bold means an unread communication. Light black indicates a communication that has been read.

WIP Ledger

The WIP Ledger and Fees Ledger show the time and billing elements of the client. The WIP ledger shows the time and expenses generated against the client as shown in Figure 29. The ledger card shows the date, type of WIP, job code, staff code and WIP values and displays the overall client WIP balance.

Show un-passed WIP

When a staff enters Time and expenses they do not appear in Client WIP ledger unless those records are ‘passed’. Select ‘Show Un-passed WIP’ checkbox to view the un-passed WIP entries in the WIP Ledger Window. Note that, the current WIP balance and Aged balance (if any) may change accordingly, if this option is enabled

Cost Centre

Select the cost centre code from the drop down to view WIP entries of the selected cost centre. Select ‘combined’ to view all WIP entries. Note, this option will be visible, if ‘Use Cost Centre’ checkbox is selected from Settings.

WIP on Draft Bills

If Draft Bills option is enabled, WIP Ledger will display total of WIP on Draft Bills

Colour Scheme

The entries appearing in green are ‘un-passed’ entries. The entries appearing in blue are ‘draft entries’.

Fees Ledger

The Fees Ledger displays the bills, receipts, credit notes issued and journals on a client. The ledger card shows the date, type, doc number, ref number, job code, financial values and displays the overall client Fees balance. You can also open the Word bill or credit note by clicking on the ‘View Bill/Credit Note’ button.

Show Draft Bills/ Credit Notes

If Draft Bills option is enabled, Fees Ledger will display all Draft Bills/ Credit Notes entries

Job Plan

Client job plans allows staff members to create a budget / job plan to reflect all of their clients and the work they will carry out for the year. They can forecast the work over the year.

To setup Job Plans, go to View menu  Clients option. The Client browse appears. Select a client for whom Job plan will be created. Go to Job Plans tab. Click New. Or select the Job plan option from the Client and Contact Browse Tool Bar. The Job Plan window appears.

The client name will be populated automatically in the client section.

Enter the details in Job, Job Type, Office, Partner, Department, Manager, Lead Staff, Budgeted Fees, Budgeted WIP, Budgeted No.Staff, Draft or Actual,.

In Start Date, enter the earliest date from when a job plan is scheduled to begin or has already begun is displayed here, once job plans have been created. And in Finish Date, enter the last date a job plan is to end or has ended, is displayed here, once job plans have been created. Once the plan has been marked as an actual plan, the system will automatically reflect all its entries in the diary of the specified staff members.

Click the New Plan button to enter the specific staff details that will carry out the plan. The Staff Schedule window appears.

Enter the necessary information like Staff name, Grade, WIP Analysis, Activity, Planned Start Date, Planned Finish Date, Charge out Rate, Planned No. Units, Rate Amount and Total Amount. The total amount is calculated based on :

Actual Start Date, Actual Finish Date, Actual No. Units and Estimated Units to Completion

Use Dates

Select this check box, if you want to enter the actual start and finish dates for the job.

Select Create Next Plan button to generate a new plan based on an existing job from the previous year. If you do so, all the previous plans created will be overwritten. The Create Draft Plan / Budget window appears.

Enter the following information:

Plan Details

Select the level of detail, which you want the system to generate from amongst Summary, Grades, Grades and WIP, Staff or Staff and WIP.

If you select Summary, then budgeted fees, budgeted WIP and budgeted number of staff will be calculated from last year’s job. The detail part will remain blank. If you select Grades, then the detail part will be filled up accumulating time records of last year’s job according to staff grade. If you select Grades and WIP, then the detail part will be filled up accumulating time records of last year’s job according to staff grade and WIP analysis code. If you select Staff, then the detail part will be filled up accumulating time records of last year’s job according to staff member. If you select Staff and WIP, then the detail part will be filled up accumulating time records of last year’s job according to staff member and WIP analysis code.

Last Year Job

The actual time sheet figures will be taken from the job specified here, to generate the new plan.

The other details include, Start Date, Increase the Value of WIP by (%) and Increase the Value of Fees by (%). Select the Create option to create the plan according to the job specified.

Select Actual from the toolbar to update an existing plan if the job has already been completed.

Links

Client Links Tab appears for all Parent Client and non Linked Client. A Parent Client will show all the linked clients in this tab. You can setup new links with other clients and also edit link types for existing clients

Managing Linked Clients

Drive manages clients linked together for billing and other.

Setup Clients Linked for Billing

To set up Client links select the client from the client browse. Linked Client window appears. To add a client linked with the selected client click the Add option. You can choose the link type between ‘linked for billing’ and ‘other’.

Switch Parent Client between linked clients

You can switch parent client in Linked Client functionality. To do this, go to settings section and enable ‘Enhanced Linked Client Functionality’ option.

After enabling the link window will appear as follows:

You can switch parent client to another client provided the linked clients do not have transactions.

Raising Bills for Linked Clients

When a bill is raised client name appears in the client name and the job split area displays jobs of the client along with the jobs of its linked clients so that user can raise bill against jobs of its child clients as well as its own.

Linked Clients Lodgements And Receipts

When a receipt is raised client name appears in the client name and the job split area displays jobs of the client along with the jobs of its linked clients so that user can raise receipt against jobs of its child clients as well as its own.

You can allocate receipt amount for all client jobs. To enter the individual receipt entries, click the New button. The Receipt window appears.

Fees Allocation for Linked Clients

The Fees Allocation routine allows you to allocate previously unallocated receipts, credit notes or fees journals.

Staff

Setup Staff Access Rights

To Define Staff Access Rights, go to Tools menu  Staff Access Right. The Define Staff Access Rights window appears.

Enter the details of Staff, Access Type

Select the Access Type from the drop-down list. It can be either Group or Special. If Group is selected, the access rights defined for the selected access group is applied to the staff. Selecting Special allows you to define access rights for individual staff members.

Access Group

This field is enabled only if Group is selected as the Access Type. Select the Access Group from the drop-down list.

This staff can only log in from

This field is enabled if Special is selected as the Access Type. Enter the machine name from which the staff member can log in.

Data Selection and Access Functions can be defined only if the access type is selected as Special. For Group type, they are disabled and the access functions defined for the selected access group applied to the staff member. For more details on defining Data Selection and Access Functions, refer to Entering User Access Groups section.

Overview

The Staff Browse lets you view all your staff members at a glance.

The toolbar at the top of the Staff browse provides the following functions:

The New option displays the Add a staff window and lets you enter a new staff.

The Open option displays the Edit a staff window and lets you edit the staff details for the selected staff member.

The Delete option allows you to delete the selected record.

The Print option is used to print the details of the selected record on the screen.

When you click the Find option, the Find window appears on top of the Staff window. You type in some search information and click the Find Now button to begin the search.

The Communications option is used to display the communication tab page for the selected staff and add new communication details for that staff.

The Contacts option is used to display the contacts tab page for the selected staff member and add new contact details for that staff.

The Diary option is used to display the diary tab page for the selected staff and add new tasks/events for that staff.

The Task option is used to display the task tab page for the selected staff and add new task details for that staff.

The Time option is used to display the time tab page for the selected staff and add new time sheets for that staff.

The Expenses option is used to display the expense tab page for the selected staff and add new expense details for that staff.

The Documentation option is used to display the documentation tab page for the selected staff and add new documentation for that staff.

General Details Tab

The Staff General Details is used to record information about the staff member’s position within the firm. It shows about how this staff member will operate on behalf of the firm, whom they report to, and position and charge out/costs details.

To enter Staff details, go to Menu bar  View menuStaff option. The Staff browse appears. Click New. The Add a staff window appears showing the General tab page.

Enter the following details:

Staff Code

Enter a unique reference to identify the staff. A Staff will use this code as a login code to access Drive.

Send E-mail

Select this option if you wish to send email to this staff.

Name

Enter the name of the staff. Clicking the Name lookup displays the Name Details window, wherein you can add details on the individual such as Title, First, Middle and Last names, Suffix, Gender and Salutation (formal and informal).

Office

Select the office the staff member belongs to from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Office lookup to display the Select Office window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Department

Use the drop-down list to select the department the staff member belongs to. Alternatively, click the Department lookup to display the Select Department window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Type

Select whether the staff is a partner, manager or other. If you select the type as partner, the partner and manager boxes are disabled. If you select the type as manager, the manager box is disabled. If you select the type as Other, both Partner and Manager boxes are enabled.

Partner

Use the drop-down list to select the partner. Alternatively, click the partner lookup to display the Select Partner window. Select the name of the partner from the window and click OK.

Manager

Use the drop-down list to select the manager. Alternatively, click the manager lookup to display the Select Manager window. Select the name of the manager from the window and click OK.

Grade

Use the drop-down list to select the grade of the staff member. Alternatively, click the Grade lookup to display the Select Staff Grade window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Title

Enter the title / position of the staff member.

Access Group

This field is always disabled. On viewing the General details of an existing staff member, the access group to which the staff belongs is displayed.

Password

Enter the password for the staff member.

Confirm Password

Enter the password of the staff member once again to confirm the entry.

Status

Select the status of the staff member from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Status lookup to display the Select Staff Status window. For further details, refer to the Lookups section.

Date of Joining

Select the date from the calendar, (which appears on clicking the drop-down list), the staff member joined the organisation.

Date of Leaving

Select the date staff member left the organisation, if the staff member no longer belongs to the organisation.

Holiday Entitlement, TOIL Carried Forward, Study Leave Entitlement, Exam Leave Entitlement, Public Holiday Entitlement

For each staff member, you can define holidays in the mentioned heads. You can also define special holidays in More Holidays/ Leave section. Based on the holiday entitlement Staff Holiday Planner is updated.

Chargeable WIP Analysis

Use the drop-down list to select the WIP analysis code. This code will automatically appear when entering time sheets for this particular staff member. Alternatively, click the Default WIP Analysis lookup to display the WIP Analysis window. For further details, refer to the Entering WIP Analysis Codes section.

Non-Chargeable WIP Analysis

Cost Centre

Select the cost centre from the drop- down list. You can also click the lookup to display the Cost Centre window.

Daily Accountable Units

Enter the number of units per time sheet that this staff member is required to fulfill every day.

Budget Based on Units /%

Select whether the budget is based on units or percentage. The units will depend upon the global unit settings such as Hours or Decimal Hours or Time Units.

Chargeable Budget

Enter the chargeable budget.

Non-Chargeable Budget

Enter the non-chargeable budget.

Use Grade Rates

Select this check box if you would like to use the charge out rates defined for the particular grade that you have selected. If this check box is selected, then the Pre-Rate and Post-Rate tabs are disabled. The charge out and cost rate boxes below are populated by the rates that have been defined for the Grade selected under Tools > Lookups > Staff Grade. If this box is cleared, then the charge out rates applicable will be those that have been defined here.

New Rates From

Select the date from when the charges out rates are applicable. This box is disabled if the Use Grade Rates check box has been selected.

Charge out Rate

Enter up to nine Charge-out Rates for each of the Current Rates and Future Rates.

Cost Rate

Enter the cost rate as defined for this staff member for each of the Current Rates and Future Rates.

Description

Enter the description of the charge out rates for each of the Current Rates and Future Rates.

Mileage

Enter the rate of expense claim.

Transfer Rate

Enter the transfer rate. If the staff member does work on behalf of another department, the system will charge him out to that department at this rate.

After the General Details have been entered, click the Personal tab to enter the personal details for the staff member.

Personal Details Tab

Staff Personal Details keeps a record of the personal information of the individual staff member. Information of Home address details, phone, email id, Educational Qualifications, Date of Birth, Marital Status, name of Spouse and Identification Photo can be saved here.

Other Information Tab

The Staff Other Information window allows you to enter categories and other information for the staff member. Practice may setup user defined fields that will save customized information for each staff. This information can be viewed in Other Information tab. To set up Other Information field, go to Tools Settings Staff Other Information.

Staff Communications Tab

Staff communications is used to handle all communications between the firm and the staff member. To access Staff communication, go to staff browse and select the communication icon from the toolbar. The staff communication appears.

The toolbar within the staff communication allows you to add new communication, edit or delete, search and print an existing communication. You can use communication settings option to setup new mail for the staff. You can also set up ‘Out of Office Auto reply’ for all the defined mail settings for user.

Staff Contacts Tab

Staff Contacts keep a record of every personal contact that has been set up by the staff member. To enter Contact Details, go to ViewStaff option. The Staff browse appears. Select a staff. Choose Contacts from the toolbar. The Contacts information appears. Click new button to add new Contact Details.

Private

Select this check box to use the Staff Contact for personal use and it can be visible only by the Staff and not anywhere else.

Send E-Mails

Select the Send E-Mails checkbox, if you want to add the email of the contact in your sender’s list

Enter the following details also:

Name , File As , Position , Address , Town / City , County , Post Code , Country , Phone , Mobile , Fax , E-Mail , Web .

Staff Diary Tab

Each staff member has their own Calendar, Reminders and Task Lists that they access every day. Diary is used to enter meetings, tasks and events on your desktop and set to other staff with whom you work. It lets you organise your job plans too. Some events may be automatically scheduled using this option. To enter Staff Diary and reminders, go to View Staff option. The Staff browse appears. Select a staff. Choose Diary from the toolbar. The Diary tab page appears.

Click New from the toolbar. The Add Task/Meeting/Event window appears.

In the boxes provided enter the following information:

Staff Member

The name of the staff member logged on is displayed by default. To enter a task/event for another staff, select the staff from the drop-down list or click Staff Member link to display the Select Staff window. Select the name of the staff from the given list.

Provide the details in Event/Task/ Meeting, Start Date/Time, Finish Date/Time

All Day

Select this option to set the task/event/meeting for the whole day. It will automatically post date in Start Time and Finish Time to working hour as set in settings.

Type

Select the type of the task from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click Type to display the task Type in the lookup.

Status

Select the status of the event/task. It can be either Completed or Incomplete.

Priority

Select the priority of the event/task from the drop-down list. It can be any of the following: Low, Normal or High. In case of a High Priority Event, Diary displays the event with a tag attached to it.

Client, Job, Supplier, Contact

Select the appropriate, Client and Job from the drop down list for the Task. Similarly, select the supplier name, if any from the drop down list. The Contact for the selected client automatically appears here once the Client has been selected. You can select a new contact from the drop-down list.

Set Reminder

If you want to set a reminder for the specific event/task, then select this check box. A message box pops up to remind you about the task, on the specified date and time.

Reminder Date/ Time

If you have selected the Set Reminder check box, then you can enter the date and time, when you want the system to remind you about the specific event/task.

Description

Enter the description of the event/task/meeting.

Enter any additional notes about the specific reminder in the space provided below the Set Reminder field.

From the toolbar click Assign to Staff to display the Select Staff window. Select the staff member to whom you want to assign the

task/event. This task/event will be displayed in the My Tasks browse for this staff.

From the toolbar click Generate Time Sheet to generate the Time Sheet from here. Enter the details information in the space and click Ok to save. This Time Sheet will be displayed in the Time Sheets browse for the staff.

From the toolbar click Recurrence to set the Task/Job as a recurring. The Appointment Recurrence window appears.

Enter the details of Appointment Time, Recurrence Pattern

Range of Recurrence

Set the range of the task depending to the recurrence option. The system automatically calculates the no of recurrence in the third case and posts the schedule in Task/Browse and Diary.

Click on Remove Recurrence button to remove the recurrence appointment posted in Diary. This option is applicable only if the current event is saved as a recurring event in Diary.

You can edit the event from the diary by double clicking on the event to display the Edit Staff window and make the necessary changes.

Staff Task Tab

Each Staff member has its own list of meetings, tasks, events and holidays. These appear in the task tab of the staff

Time Tab

How to Post Timeline Directly for Client Calls

DIARY & TASKS

Overview

The Diary is used to record Tasks, Events, Meetings, Holidays, Study and Examination Leave. A staff member can record these entries in DRIVE under their own Staff name or under another Staff members name provided they have the required access rights. The default screen when you load DRIVE is the Diary in Week View. Deadlines & Workflows can also appear on the diary but this can be turned on or off.

The diary can be viewed in different ways, depending on the user preference. For example in Figure 31, the diary is in Month view. To change the view, click on one of the view shortcuts as circled in Figure 32. For example, the diary is now in ‘Week’ by simply clicking the ‘Week’ view option.

The Views available to select include Day, Work Week, Week and Month. The filters are available on the toolbar at the top of the Diary under the Show icon.

Figure 33

Click on the Show button and you can decide how much information to display on your diary as in Figure 34.

Figure 34

You can also change the diary settings by clicking the Diary Settings button as circled in Figure 35 and Figure 36 appears.

Figure 35

Figure 36

How To Use The Diary

To create a new diary item, either right click on My Diary Window and select New or alternatively select File and New from the main DRIVE toolbar. The Add Task/Meeting/Event window will appear as shown in Figure 37

For example, we will create a new meeting on the 10^th October 2011 for the client Flats Limited.

Figure 37

The Task/Meeting/Event window will appear (Figure 38) allowing you to enter the details of the upcoming meeting on 10^th October 2011 with the client Flats Limited as shown in Figure 40.

Figure 38

Entering the standing information is straight forward and self explanatory when creating a diary entry. Depending on the type you create there will be different options available. For example if you create a type Examination Leave, the client fields will become grayed out as they are not applicable to this type. For the types Event, Tasks and Meetings there is extra functionality available in the toolbar at top of the Add Diary/Task window.

You can also use the recurrence button should you want to make any meeting, event or task a recurring entry.

Figure 39

Generate Timesheet directly from diary

Figure 40

When all the Meeting details have been entered you can send these to your timesheets. To do this, click on the Generate Timesheet button as above.

Figure 41

Enter a WIP Analysis code, for example A000 (Audit) and then click OK. By clicking OK, this meeting will be added to the existing timesheet for this period or if the timesheet has not been previously created for this period, it will be automatically created.

When all the information has been entered against the meeting, click Save & Close and the item will be saved on the specific date i.e. 10^th October 2011 as shown in Figure 42 or click Save & New to enter a new item onto the diary using the same procedure as above.

Figure 42

Viewing Multiple Diaries

DRIVE Diary allows users to view one or multiple staff member’s diaries depending on the user’s level of access. To view another staff members diary select the Staff hyperlink from the My Diary screen in DRIVE. The active staff list will appear and you can tick on or off the staff you want to see on the diary as in Figure 43.

Figure 43

Synchronise Diary Appointments With Microsoft Outlook

The DRIVE Diary allows you to synchronise Diary appointments with Microsoft Outlook. On the My Diary screen you will see the Synchronise button in the main toolbar. Click the button and the following screen will appear as in Figure 44:

Figure 44

Here you can choose to synchronise your diary entries with Outlook. Select the entries you want to synchronise, the direction you want to synchronise From and To.

You must select a From Date and To Date for the synchronization to complete successfully.

Enter Tasks

My Tasks will display the list of meetings, tasks or events generated from the diary or generated through the My Task screen. This list can be treated as a ‘to do list’ for a staff member. These tasks can then be set up as an alert, so the user does not miss an appointment, meeting etc. Once you complete a particular task, you can change the status of the task to ‘completed’ and then send the task to ‘history’ to remove from your current ‘to do list’.

From the Navigation Bar, choose Drive Desktop and then choose My Tasks. The My Task browse appears.

Above Figure displays the current tasks, meetings and events that are still marked as outstanding for this particular staff member. Users can use this display to work across all communication types to manage outstanding meetings or tasks.

By keeping a track of all tasks, you can then run daily, weekly or monthly reports to show any upcoming tasks for a particular client.

Manage Staff Holidays

Drive lets you setup holiday for staff in practice.

Setup Staff Holiday

You can define the types of holidays your practice enjoys for your staff. To set up holidays, go to Tools Settings  WIP Ledger Control Default Codes  Other Codes.

Setup WIP Control Codes for the holidays as : Time in Lieu of O/T, Holiday, Study Leave, Examination Leave and Public Holiday.

You can define other types of Holiday Leaves. To define other types of holiday, click on the link as shown in the figure.

Once defined, the types of holidays will appear in the diary Task Type.

You can define Holiday entitlement for each staff in the Staff window as below:

Setup working hours, holiday and O/T calculation basis for the practice. Go to Tools Settings Staff Diary. Enter the following details:

Working Hours From: enter the working hour start time for each staff.

Working Hours To: enter the time staff working hour ends.

Lunch Hour From: enter the time lunch time starts

Lunch Hour To: enter the time lunch time ends

Public Holidays: select the country of public holidays the practice follows.

Base Holiday Planner on Practice year: Select this checkbox, if staff holiday planner merges with practice year instead of calendar year.

To view staff holiday planner, click Staff Holiday Leave from the navigation bar.

Double click on a staff leave record to view the holidays planned and taken as below:

You can plan for your holidays by adding an entry in diary.

Go to staff diary, select new.

The holiday plan will appear in the respective authorized staff member for approval. Click the approve check box to approve the holiday.

Generate timesheet to ‘take’ the holiday on the days, mentioned in Start Date time to Finish date time.

Overview

From the Navigation Bar, select My Communications and then choose E-mail. The Email browse appears as follows. The options are self explanatory, you have an inbox, outbox, sent items and so on. As we can see from the screen above, emails appear with different colours. This colour reflects the current status of the email. For example - black: email has been read by the user and marked as completed. - Black bold: email has not been read by the user and - red: email has been read by the user but the email is outstanding.

Setup E-Mail Access Rights

PHONE CALLS

A very important aspect of DRIVE is the recording of phone calls, it is vital to record important calls from your clients. This is a matter of getting into a routine. It is vital that everybody in the firm records the relevant and important conversations they have with clients by phone. Forensically it is great to be able to go back into the client communications and explain to a client that you returned their call on Tuesday at 10.30 and ask why they did not receive your message. Firms receive many calls and it is an internal decision which needs to be made about how many and what type of calls should be recorded by staff.

Overview

The Phone option is a quick and simple method to record phone calls you make or receive. This option allows you to record calls from anywhere in the system. Every phone call logged, records the name of the person making or receiving the call, the length of the call and most importantly the client that the call is against. All of these recorded phone calls are then stored in a centralised database thus providing an update call log on all clients for all staff.

How To Use Call Logging:

There are a few ways to record a phone call in DRIVE. From the Client and Contact Database Window, find the client that you want to record the call against using the Fast Search option. Once you find the client i.e. Flats Limited, select the Make a Phone Call icon (circled) or right click on the client and select Make a Phone Call as shown in Figure.

The following screen will appear. As you can see from Figure, Flats Limited automatically appears in the client field.

Notice that there is a timer at the bottom of the Phone and this can be activated to record the length of time you are on the call. This duration of time can then be passed to the timesheet if you choose to ‘Generate Timesheet’ as we covered previously in Diary and Tasks.

Enter the details of WIP Analysis code, Units will automatically be populated from the timer, choose appropriate rate and save the Time sheet. A timesheet record will be generated which you can check in the timesheet browse.

Once you have entered all the details into the Phone window (Figure), you can click the button ‘Save & Close’ and the call will be logged against the client i.e. Abbott Plumbing as shown in Figure.

As previously stated, DRIVE allows you to record Phone Calls anywhere throughout the system. For example, if you are on the Diary window and you receive a call from a client that we want to record details. By pressing F6, a communications ribbon toolbar is added above the normal icon toolbar as shown below. This will allow you to record a number of different communication types without having to leave the Diary.

Alerts

Alerts should have been setup by the system administrator and they will automatically pop-up when necessary. If this does not happen, alerts can be setup using the following instructions.

From the Navigation Menu select Communications and select “Phone”. On the phone browse click on the Communication Settings icon in Figure 51

Click the Options Tab and click the option ‘Show New Phone Alerts as well as the other alerts. Click OK and an alert window will pop up every time you receive or are assigned a new phone call.

Pretty much all communication types are dealt with in a similar manner. You can create them in the same way and the screens are very similar. Just follow the setup of phone calls to setup Memos and Tasks and Meetings etc.

E-MAIL

DRIVE has its own email client which can be used by the general staff from the firm. Most firms decide to mix and match the DRIVE email client with Microsoft Outlook. Partners would tend to use Outlook as well as some managers who use mobile devices. DRIVE email is a central email system in that all emails come into DRIVE automatically through Exchange or Pop servers.

How To Send An Email

From the email browse, select ‘New’ and send a new email screen will appear as follows:

Your email address will automatically appear in the “From” field. If you have two or more email addresses, you can click on the drop down list and select a different “from” email address. Next, enter the e-mail address of the person you want to email. Click the ‘To’ button and the Select Recipients window appears as follows:

Type the first part of the name you are looking for such as “Fla” and the list will jump to the section on the list.

Select the recipient name and click the To:-> button. The selected recipients to which the e-mail is to be sent are displayed as shown in Figure 56

Click OK and the recipient’s name is added to the “To” field and the client field is also automatically filled. This will ensure that the client communications history will be updated automatically also.

How to create Mail Group

Select the recipient name and click the To:-> button. The selected recipients to which the e-mail is to be sent are displayed

Click on the Add Group Button. E-Mail Group window appears. Provide a group name and click on the Add Contact window. Select the contacts from the contact lookup as shown below:

How to setup Out-of Office Mail

Set up Out Of Office Reply for one or more email accounts with separate Out Of Office Reply Mail Content for each Email Account. From the Staff Browse, select Out Of Office option. Out Of Office option appears. Choose the email Account name. Select the checkbox ‘I am currently out of the office’ to enable the out-of office reply for the email account chosen. Type in the Subject and the mail body in the area provided.

How to Add Picture content in E-Mail

You can add pictures within email content. To insert an image, click on the image icon as shown below, and from the picture dialog, choose appropriate picture. You can add border to the picture by adding border thickness in the layout section. Position your picture by choosing Alignment and spacing.

How to Setup Email Template

How To Mark Emails as Private

Staff members belonging to a group can access communications of each other through ‘All Communications’ browse. All communications appear in this browse. A staff member can choose to mark a communication as ’Private’ and it will no longer appear in the all communications browse. To mark a communication as ‘Private’, open the communication and from the Type dropdown select ‘Private’. After saving the record, the login user will be able to access the record and will not be visible to other users in the same group.

Next, enter the e-mail addresses of the people you want to send a copy of the message to and those who will receive a blind copy of the email following the same procedure for entering the “To” recipient. Next enter a subject for your email “Waiting for files” or whatever detail you want and select a job “Audit” for the email.

Next, select the priority of the e-mail from the drop-down list. The priority can be High, Normal or Low. In our example, a priority of ‘High’ so we can track it. Next, select a type “Audit File” and status “In Progress”.

Next, add a file attachment to the email that you are sending. Click the attachment icon (looks like a paper clip) and the following screen appears.

Select the file that you wish to attach to the email from storage location.

The attached file ‘Audit Finalisation Letter’ (circled) is added to the outgoing email as shown in Figure 61

After entering all the information in the email, you can now the send the e-mail by clicking the send button as above

When you send the email, it will be added to your outbox as shown in Figure 62

Emails will automatically go from the Outbox every few minutes depending upon the time set by the administrator on your email traffic. The DRIVE Email Checker must be setup on your server to send/receive emails at regular intervals.

If you want the email to go immediately simply click the send/receive button as indicated above.

Change The Status Of An E-mail

You can change the status of any email by right-clicking on the email as shown in Figure 63.

Send To DRIVE

Once installed the Send to DRIVE button will appear in Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel.

Microsoft Outlook

Open Outlook as normal. The “Send to DRIVE” (MS Office Add-In) button will now be displayed in the Standard Tool bar (see Figure 64).

Figure 64

If the “Send to DRIVE” button is not displayed, please see the trouble shooting section.

Only emails in your Inbox and Sent Items can be sent to DRIVE. It is not possible to send over emails in user created-folders.

Highlight the email you want to send to DRIVE and select the Send to DRIVE button. If this is the first time you have used the Send to DRIVE button the “Change database” window will be displayed (see Figure 65).

You will need to enter the Server Name and Database Name for your DRIVE database. You can find this by going to Tools > Change Database within DRIVE. This will display the same window but with the correct information. Once you have entered the correct Server Name and Database Name, select the OK button to save the database information.

The “Save E-Mail in DRIVE” window will now be displayed (see Figure 66).

Figure 66

This will allow you to index the email against a Staff member/Client etc within DRIVE.

Make your selections in the appropriate fields, the main ones being the Staff, Type and Client and select the OK button to send the email to DRIVE.

Microsoft Word

Open WORD as normal. The “Send to DRIVE” (MS Office Add-In) button will now be displayed in the DRIVE Tab within Word (see Figure 67).

Figure 67

If the “Send to DRIVE” button is not displayed, please see the trouble shooting section.

The Word Document must be saved first before you can send it to DRIVE.

After selecting the Send to DRIVE button the Send to DRIVE window will be displayed from Word (see Figure 68).

Figure 68

This will allow you to index the document against a Staff member/Client etc within DRIVE. Make your selections in the appropriate fields, the main ones being the Staff, Type and Client and select the OK button to send the document to DRIVE.

Microsoft Excel

Open Excel as normal. The “Send to DRIVE” (MS Office Add-In) button will now be displayed in the DRIVE Tab within Excel (see Figure 69).

Figure 69

If the “Send to DRIVE” button is not displayed, please see the trouble shooting section.

The Excel Document must be saved first before you can send it to DRIVE.

After selecting the Send to DRIVE button the Send to DRIVE window will be displayed for Excel (see Figure 70).

Figure 70

This will allow you to index the spreadsheet against a Staff member/Client etc within DRIVE. Make your selections in the appropriate the fields, the main ones being the Staff, Type and Client and select the OK button to send the spreadsheet to DRIVE.

Trouble Shooting

The Send to DRIVE button is not displaying

Issue: When I load Outlook/WORD/Excel the Send to DRIVE button is not displayed in the Standard toolbar.

Solution: There can be a number of reasons why the button is not being displayed.

The Add-In has not been installed.

The Standard Tool Bar is not selected.

The Add-In is in the disabled items.

To enable the Add-In, refer to the Microsoft Help within the program.

In some instances the Add-In has been installed but still is not displaying in the Standard toolbar. In this case the Add-In was originally installed with the “Just me” option. This means it will only work on the user’s desktop who originally installed it. To resolve this you need to uninstall and re-install the Add-In as “Everyone”.

Could Not Connect to DRIVE Database

Issue: After selecting the Send to DRIVE button the “Could not connect to DRIVE Database” window is displayed.

Solution: You need to enter the Server name and the Database name. You can get this information from DRIVE. When logged into Drive, you need to Select Tools > Change Database. This will display the Change Database window.

The correct Server name and Database name will be shown here. Take note of the Server Name and Database name and input on the machine displaying the “Could not connect to DRIVE Database” message. Select the OK button.

No Emails Selected (Outlook Only)
Issue: You select the Send to Drive button and get the No emails selected message (see Figure 71)

Figure 71

Solution: You currently have no emails selected or have an email selected that is not in your Inbox or Sent Items folder.

Invalid Email Storage location (Outlook Only)

Issue: You select the Send to Drive button and get an Invalid Email Storage location error.

Solution: You currently have no storage location setup in DRIVE. In DRIVE you need to select the Communication settings and define an email storage location.

SMS

The SMS option lets you record all SMS received and sent by a staff member.

To send and receive SMS using Drive, setup SMS service provider details from Tools  Settings  Staff  Email/ SMS Setting.

To send sms, enter the text in the area provided. Write the receiver’s mobile number and sender’s call back number. Fill in the client, job, and contact details. Click on the Send button to send the sms.

You can set up Out-Of Office Auto reply option for SMS. To set up, click the Out-of Office button from toolbar of the SMS browse.

Select the ‘I am currently Out of Office’ checkbox to send the reply. Provide the date and time till you will be unavailable and select the alternative staff name the receiver may contact in case the login staff is unable to reply.

FAX

The Fax option lets you record all faxes received and also all the faxes sent by a staff member. When a fax arrives from a client, go to Fax, select New. The Fax (In) window appears.

Select the sender’s name from the From lookup, client’s name, Job from the Client and Job look up respectively and attach the fax by clicking the icon from the toolbar. Save and close the document. This can be forwarded later on.

Documents

The documents option lets you record all documents received and also all the documents sent by a staff member.

Enter Document details

From the Navigation Bar, choose the Communications option.

Select Document. The documents received by the selected staff member appear. Click New. The Document window appears.

Enter the following details for each of the above cases:

From

Enter the name of the person who has initiated the communication. Alternatively, click the From lookup to display the Select Contact Name & Address Details window. Select the name of the contact and click OK.

The name of the logged on staff member is displayed in the To box. However, you can select a staff from the Select Staff window which appears on clicking the To link.

Time In

Select the date and time the communication was initiated.

Priority

Select the priority of the communication from the drop-down list. The priority can be High, Normal or Low.

Type

Select the type of communication from the drop-down list. Alternatively, enter the type of communication in the box. When you save the record, the type entered gets saved as well, so that it is available for use the next time.

Status

Select the communication status from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click Status to display the Communication Status window. You can add a new status or select one from the list. Only the Completed status appears by default and it is system reserved.

Completed on

The Completed on option is enabled only when the Status is selected as Completed. Enter the date and time the communication was completed.

Client

If the document is from a client (entered in the From box), the client name appears here.

Job

This field is enabled only if a client has been selected. Select the job from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click Job to display the Select Job window. The list of jobs for the selected client appears. Select the job from the list and click OK.

Supplier

If the document is from a supplier (entered in the From box), the supplier name appears here.

Contact

The name of the contact person for the client or supplier, as the case may be, is displayed here.

Location

Enter the physical location of the document (e.g. the cabinet) where the document is kept.

Subject

Enter the subject of the communication.

Attachments

Click Attachments to display the Open dialog. Select the file to be attached with the document and click Open. The file appears in the Attachments box. You can also attach a file by clicking Attach File button on the toolbar.

Click Save and Close to save the document.

The following toolbar appears at the top of the Document window:

Click Save and Close to save the Document details.

Click Save and New to save the details and refresh the screen for a new entry.

Click Print to display the Print window. Select the appropriate settings like the printer name, print range, number of copies to print etc.

Use the Attach File button to display the standard Open dialog box. Select the files you would like to send as attachments along with the message. Click Open. A Show Attachment button appears. Click this button to see the list of files you have attached.

Click Campaign to enter the campaign the details similarly as in Phone. For further details, refer to the Phone section.

Click Assign to Staff to display the Select Staff window. Select the staff member to whom you want to assign the communication. The communication is assigned to this staff member and you can view the details from the staff member’s Document (Inbox).

Memos

Overview

How to Use Fax

TIME RECORDING

DRIVE Time Management covers all the aspects of time and expense recording. DRIVE has an enforced option called Timesheet Monitoring which will ensure that staffs enter their time every day without fail. DRIVE also covers the overseeing Time Manager which shows you all the time entered by the entire practice in one screen. This guide will also show you how to post timesheets, expenses as well as updating time through communications.

Posting Timesheets

The Timesheet option in DRIVE allows you to record time against a client or a prospect. It also allows you to record Non-chargeable time such as Practice development and Administration work. From the Navigation Bar, select Timesheets DRIVE Desktop and the Timesheet Browse appear as follows:

Figure 72

New: This allows you to create a new timesheet.

Open: Opens the Timesheet that is currently highlighted in the Timesheet Browse

Delete: Deletes the timesheet that is currently highlighted in the Timesheet Browse

Print: Runs the Staff Time Sheet WIP Analysis report for the current year for the current Staff selected.

Search: Allows you to search within the Timesheet Browse.

Pass Timesheets: Opens the Pass Timesheets window (see Passing Time/Expenses for more information).

Unpass Timesheets: Opens the Unpass Timesheet window (works the same as the Pass Timesheets).

Timesheet Browse: Allows you to change between Timesheets and Time Records (displays each individual Time record that has been entered)

Multiple Day Timesheet: Allows you to post multiple days (see Multiple Day posting for more information).

View: Allows you to change between Current Year transactions, Previous Year or All transactions.

Click New and the Timesheet screen appears. The logged on staff member automatically appears.

The Week No. is filled in. The Week No. depends on the calendar year. Thus, each Week No. has a defined period. Enter a Ref. No (reference number) or continue with the default value. Next click the client lookup, the three dots“…” field is used to display the ‘Select Client’ window, you can also use the F3 key to display the list of clients. Select a client to whom you want to charge the time.

The client name is automatically displayed under the ‘Name’ column as shown above.

Under Job column, click the job lookup “…” to display the list of jobs available on this client as in

When a client is selected, only chargeable WIP can be chosen. Select the WIP analysis code and click OK, the code will fill into the WIP column. Non-chargeable can only be selected if a client has not been selected as this only applies to staff.

The rate and rate amount will automatically be entered based on the initial DRIVE set-up. Rates can be hidden based upon access levels. Enter the amount of time spent on the client on a particular day. Upon entering the time spent on the client, press the enter button or tab button to input your notes.

You can only enter one job entry on a single timesheet record. For example, if you performed 3 hours work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on a given week for the same client and same job, then you will have 3 separate line entries as shown in Figure 78.

You can pass all the selected time records by clicking the ‘Pass All’ (circled) or you can pass each timeline separately by clicking the ‘Pass’ box at the end of each time entry, providing the user has the required access rights.

If a staff member does not have access rights to pass time entries, the following message appears.

Click ‘Save and Close’ to save the timesheet or ‘Save and New’ to save the existing timesheet and open up the next timesheet.

When a timesheet entry is passed, the WIP ledger is automatically updated on the client. To access the WIP on a client, click on the WIP icon on the client browse, edit the client and select the WIP ledger tab.

If a timesheet record is not passed, then this time will not be marked as outstanding WIP against this client. Therefore, when the time comes to bill the client for this outstanding WIP, the time will not show against this client until the time is passed.

To edit a timesheet simply double click on a timesheet in the browse and the edit screen will appear. Double-click on the timesheet entry and the following screen appears as in figure.

Make the necessary changes to the particular timeline entry and click OK. Click Save & Close before the overall timeline changes will hold and take effect.

Multiple Day Timesheet

To post multiple day Timesheets for a Client and a Job on a specific duration select the Multiple Day Timesheet button from Timesheet toolbar.

Enter the From date, To Date, Staff Name, Client Name, Job, Cost centre , WIP code and Units. Drive will generate Timesheet for all the dates within the range.

You can enter Timesheets of different units in a single line entry from within the timesheet for a particular week.

If the timesheet bath is opened, it will appear as below:

Prospect time cannot be billed directly. If you wish to bill prospect time you must convert them to a client. Prospect time can however be written off.

Overview Of Expenses

DRIVE allows you to record Expenses (Staff Expense Claims form), Indirect Expenses and Linked Outlay (see the Purchase Invoice section for more information on posting linked outlay). Expenses are normally incurred when doing some work on a client, i.e. travel, mileage, hotels etc. Staff members can record their Expenses and then bill the client at a later date (Expenses can be recorded from the DRIVE Desktop or the WIP ledger module). Indirect Expenses are normally incurred by the firm, i.e. printing, photocopying etc, usually recorded as Outlay (Companies House, Indirect Expenses are recorded from the WIP ledger module within DRIVE).

Posting Expenses

To post Expenses in DRIVE select Expenses from the DRIVE Navigation bar (DRIVE Desktop > Expenses). Indirect Expenses are recorded in exactly the same way but from the WIP module. Select the New icon from the DRIVE toolbar. The Expense window (Expense Claims form) will be displayed.

From the Date column select the date the expense was incurred. This must be within the Batch Period date. Select the Client Browse field in the Expense Entry section. The Select Client Window will be displayed.

Select the specified Client from the list. Select the OK button to add them to the Expense sheet.

The name of the client is automatically displayed under the Client Name column. The Job selection and the WIP code selection follow the same functionality as the client code as in Figure 84.

Once you have selected your specified Job and WIP code, the Expense window will be displayed again. The next step is to enter the amount (or Mileage depending on the WIP code selected) for the expense. Select the appropriate VAT code and the VAT Amount will be calculated automatically.

Markup in Expenses

Markup is used to increment outlay and mileage expenses by a certain percentage. Mark up can be directly entered through WIP code. You can add a markup from within the expense window. To add a mark up for a particular WIP, enter the WIP code in the expense record then click the markup option. Add the Markup percentage and save. Save the Expense.

The expense will appear as below:

The WIP code with Markup percentage appears as:

Now go to Clients WIP ledger and check the Expense. Expense record appears with the incremented value as below:

Passing Expenses

An expense cannot be billed unless it has first been passed. Once the expense has been passed it is then added to the WIP ledger. An expense can be passed by checking the Pass tick box at the end of each row of the Expense Claims form or by selecting the Pass button or the Pass All button located in the toolbar at the top of the expense claims form. (The ability to Pass / Edit Expenses can be controlled by Access levels. See Time Recording setup documentation). Unpassed expenses will not be recorded as Outstanding WIP on the Client ledger but will be displayed as part of the overall Balance.

There is an option on the WIP ledger to display unpassed entries, “Show Unpassed WIP”. This is located in the toolbar at the top of the Client WIP Ledger. When selected, unpassed entries will be displayed in green.

Time & Expense Reporting

Within DRIVE there are a number of reports available for Timesheet & Expense Reporting. The Timesheet & Expense reports are located in Reports > Staff Reports.

The Reports window will now be displayed (see Figure 88). Select the on Staff Reports to expand the options. A number of reports will be displayed.

The following reports are used for Timesheet Reporting;

Staff Time Sheet Control

Staff Time Sheet WIP Analysis

Weekly Timesheet Summary Report

Missing Time Sheets

The following reports are used for Expense Reporting;

Staff Expenses

Expense Exceptions

Expense Claim Form

For more detailed analysis of Time & Expense you could use the WIP Transaction listing (WIP Reports > WIP Transaction listing).

To run any of the reports simply highlight the specific report and double click. The Report window will be displayed where you select the details you wish to view on your Report. Once you are happy select the Preview button to produce the Report.

Time Manager

Overview

Managing WIP Ledger

Write Off WIP Entries

Write-Offs are WIP that will not be recovered. Using the Write-Off routine you are able to enter amounts you want to write-off against a specific transaction thus preventing such items from remaining on the WIP ledger.

To enter a Write-Off, go to Accounts Menu  WIP Ledger  Write-Off. The Write-Off browse appears. Click New. The Write-Off window appears.

In the boxes provide enter the following details:

Date, Ref. No., Client, Job, Amount, Notes, Date, Type, Staff, Staff Name, WIP, WIP Description, Amount, Unallocated.

Allocated

Enter the amount that you want to write off against the specific transaction. Once you have entered the allocated amount, the unallocated amount changes accordingly. The client and job boxes are disabled and you cannot make any further changes to them.

The total unallocated and allocated amount is displayed. The total allocated amount should be equal to the write-off amount entered. Otherwise, the write-off cannot be saved.

The toolbar at the top of the Write-Off window provides the following functions:

The Save & Close button saves the write-off being entered and closes the Write-Off window.

The Save & New button saves the write-off being entered and clears the screen for a fresh entry.

The Auto button allocates the write-off automatically.

Clicking the Reverse button will reverse the allocations done.

Clicking the WIP Ledger will display the WIP Ledger for the specific client and job.

Clicking the Fees Ledger will display the Fees ledger for the specific client and job.

Adjustment against WIP- JOURNALS

WIP Journals can be posted to the ledger to make adjustments to the WIP analysis code balances as well as make adjustments to the WIP Ledger of a client or job.

To enter a WIP Journal, go to Accounts menu  WIP Ledger option. From the WIP Ledger option, choose the Journals option. The WIP Journals browse appears. Click New. The WIP Journal window appears.

In the boxes provide enter the details of Date, Posted By, Ref. No, Date Posted, Client, Name, Job, activity, Debit, Credit

The relevant changes are reflected in the WIP Journal window.

Allocate WIP

WIP Allocation (By Client/Job)

WIP Allocation allows you to allocate previously unallocated bills by selecting the specific client and job. Using this, you can decide which bill to allocate and against what time.

To allocate WIP against Client/Job, go to Accounts  WIP Allocation. The WIP Allocation window appears.

In the boxes provide enter the following details:

Client, Job, Date, Type, WIP Code, Description, Staff Code, Amount, Allocation, Unallocated

Once the client is selected, the Job field is enabled, allowing you to select the job for the particular client.

Once the job is selected, the unallocated time, expense and WIP journal, accrued WIP entries are displayed below in the body.

The header section displays the Total Outstanding WIP and Total Accrued WIP to be allocated. The maximum amount of Allocation should not exceed the minimum of the total outstanding WIP and total accrued WIP. Also the total amount of Allocation for all WIP when calculated should be 0.

WIP Allocation by Bill

WIP Allocation allows you to allocate previously unallocated bills. Using this, you can decide which bill to allocate and against what time.

Double-click a bill or select it and click Allocation to display the Bill window. Here you can make the required allocations. For further details on allocating bills, refer to Fees Ledger - Bills section.

Billing

Overview

DRIVE Billing is very comprehensive and can deal with a multitude of billing scenarios. DRIVE allows for the following type of billing facilities:
                  Draft Billing
                  Proforma Billing
                  Cross Client & Linked Billing
                  Automatic Reversals

Copy Bill
For the purpose of this training guide we will try showing you how to produce a simple bill. We will not deal with the complications of accrued WIP and write-offs. There are separate guides to cover these areas.

Setup Access Rights for Billing

Draft Billing

Use draft bill option to create a bill without affecting the nominal ledgers. Create a draft bill, and then it can be approved and signed off by respective staff members having rights. After sign off draft bill becomes standard bill. A standard bill can be allocated and the balance gets reflected in the nominal accounts. The fees ledger of the client shows the draft bills and its balances separately. To view draft bill and its balances in fees ledger select the ‘Show Draft Bills/Credit Notes’ check box in the fees ledger. Draft bills appear in blue.

How to Raise a Bill

Click Fees Ledger on the left-hand navigation toolbar and select the first heading Bills. The bill browse will show you all the current bills. DRAFT Bills appear in blue text and have a different numbered sequence to other bills. DRAFT Bills are optional and a continuous bill number sequence is also optional. The Status of a Bill will also appear on the browse. If this column is not on you can add it manually through the column chooser.

Click the New button to raise a new bill. The new bill screen is made up of a number of sections. The header has the following details:
                  Posting Details
                  Approval Details
                  Billing Details

The centre contains the Job Split information where the Bill and WIP amounts are split over the various jobs you may be billing on the specific client.

The bottom section has three tabs:
                  WIP Allocation
                  Recovery
                  Nominal Analysis

Fill the posting details section; date, period, Bill number can be manual or automatic. Ref No. Select your client. The centre section will automatically fill with the jobs the client has. The Approval Details will default in with the Drafted By details.

Enter the Net Amount under the Bill Details as in the figure.

Next split the Net Amount over the different jobs under the Bill Amount column in the centre section. Allocate WIP and Profits and Losses on each job line. The centre section needs to agree with the overall bill amount and WIP Allocation Tab below before you can proceed or save the bill.

Once you have completed the centre section you can click the AUTO button on the top of the screen on each job and it will auto allocate against the WIP entries under the WIP Allocation Tab.

Recovery Tab will automatically complete so long as the defaults have been setup, if not you need to manually allocate.

The nominal analysis will also automatically complete so long as the defaults have been setup, if not you need to manually allocate. Click the Save button. The new bill will appear in the browse.

Hide Jobs with Zero Outstanding WIP

You can hide Jobs with zero-WIP balance from job split and chose to show only job with non zero wip balances. To do this, select the client for which you are raising bill and click on the button. Drive will display Jobs having Outstanding WIP.

Generate Recovery

In the bill dialog the recovery tab, by default, shows the WIP which has already been billed in advance. To Generate Recovery click the Recovery button from the toolbar. You can generate Recovery Records in two ways.

Generate Recovery Records by WIP Analysis: WIP Analysis records having outstanding balances against the particular client and job is displayed in the recovery.

Generate Recovery Records by Staff: Staff having outstanding/ unbilled WIP for the chosen JOB and Client is selected in the recovery.

Raise a Bill on selected Outstanding WIP

You can choose to raise a bill on selected outstanding WIP for clients and Jobs. To select Outstanding WIP within a particular date range for a client, select the job from the Job Split window, click on the button from the bill dialog. The outstanding WIP dialog appears.

You can select the date range, the transaction types, staff and WIP analysis code which need to be billed. If you select the ‘calculate Bill Amount from O/S WIP’ option, it will generate bill amount based on the selection for the job.

To revert back to all outstanding WIP balances in WIP allocation tab, select the button.

View WIP Allocation by hiding Job Split

Select Hide Job Split Button from the toolbar to get a better view of the WIP Allocation as below. Click again to view the Job Split.

Raising Bill Pro-rata Basis

To raise a bill Pro-rata basis for a client with multiple jobs, type the Bill net amount and select the Pro-Rata button.

Select the Transaction types on which the prorata will be applied. The Bill amount entered will be distributed in proportion to the outstanding amount of WIP chosen for allocation. For example, 1500 is distributed evenly in the WIP allocation as below:

Preview & Print a Bill

To print the bill simply click on the Preview Button on the bill browse as follows:

Figure 92

When you click the Preview button you get the following screen:

If you have selected the correct bill template, just click the Preview button and the following screen will appear:

The paragraph handling screen will appear. This screen will only appear if you have this option turned on in settings. Edit the paragraphs to suit this particular client bill. Click OK and the following screen will appear:

Once you are happy with the bill simply click the print button as marked above and close the bill and return to the bill browse.

Copy a Bill

You can copy the client name, job, net amount, vat amount, gross amount and other similar conditions and create a new bill from an existing bill. Open a bill and from the Bill dialog toolbar select the Copy Bill option. Another bill will be generated

Sales Credit Note

Sales Credit Notes are produced to keep a record of all credit sales. Credit Notes allow for allocation against other bills. To add a new Sales Creit Note, select the New option from the toolbar. The Sales Credit Note window appears. System date automatically appears along with the period. If credit No is set to Auto, then Credit Note No will be automatically posted.

Proforma checkbox: Select the checkbox, if you want the VAT entered in the nominal analysis of the Credit Note to be adjusted

Reinstating WIP through Sales Credit Note

If you have a WIP allocated through Bill and you want to reinstate the WIP.

Mirror Credit Note

This option allows you to reverse a bill entry by creating a credit note. To mirror a bill, select the bill from the bill browse and select the Mirror Credit Note option from the toolbar.

Email a Bill

You can also decide to email the bill to your client. Click on the Preview button and on the screen click the Email button

When you click the email button the system will launch an automatic DRIVE email with the invoice attached. This is a quick and easy way of getting your invoices to your client in a timely manner. There is an option in settings to make the generated document read only which means it cannot be changed once sent.

Financial Ledgers

DRIVE has its own internal accounting ledgers for the practice financials. This includes an integrated purchase ledger, a bank and cash ledger with bank reconciliation as well as a nominal ledger with journals. It also allows firms to manage its Vat returns and will produce a simple profit and loss account. We have recently completed an option to allow the firm to pass DRIVE Trial Balances to Relate Accounts Production to produce Partnership or other accounts for the practice.

Lodgements & Receipts

The Lodgment option in DRIVE allows you to record and allocate client receipts. The Lodgement option is found in two areas of DRIVE, the Fees Ledger and the Bank and Cash section.

Lodgments in DRIVE are made up of one or many individual receipts. The total values of these receipts make up your overall value of the lodgment. When you post a receipt it updates the client / debtor, the debtors control account and the Bank Account.

Creating a Lodgement

From the DRIVE navigation menu select either the Fees Ledger or the Bank & Cash area. Then select new Lodgements.

Before you can go any further you must first fill in a Lodgement No. This is a mandatory field. Once you have done this, select your Lodgement date and the Bank Account you wish to post the Lodgement to.

The next step is to create the individual receipts that will make up this lodgement. The first step in creating the receipt is to choose how the receipt is going to be allocated. There are two options in DRIVE, Allocate Receipts to Jobs/Bills and Allocate Receipts to Bills. This choice is made by selecting the drop down arrow in the Lodgement windows toolbar and selecting the appropriate option.

Select the New button to open Receipt window. Depending on your allocation selection, the format of each window will be different.

Allocate Receipts To Jobs / Bills

This option allows you to choose one or multiple jobs to allocate the receipt against. If you choose to allocate receipt to jobs / bills the following Receipt window will be displayed. This is currently a non debtors receipt as no client has been selected.

Figure 101

Simply select a client from the Client drop down list to make it a debtors receipt (see Figure 102).

Figure 102

The receipt is split into three sections, the Header, the Job Split and the Receipt allocation. These sections will now be displayed on the receipt (see Figure 102).

The Header - (top section) of the receipt is straight forward to complete. Select the Date, Ref No (not mandatory), the Client and input a Gross amount for the receipt. There is also a Notes option which is a text box that allows you to key in notes if required.

The Job Split - The next section to complete is the Job split. This display’s the Jobs applicable to the selected client (see Figure 103) as well as the information belonging to that job being displayed in the appropriate columns.

Figure 103

Job Split Columns

Job: This column displays the unique job code assigned to the Job.

Job Description: This column displays the name given to the Job.

Job Balance: This column displays the value of work done for the selected Job.

Prev. Unallocated: This column displays the value left over from a previous allocation.

Amount: This column is where you key in your amount.

Allocated: This column is where you key in how much of the Amount you wish to allocate.

The Receipt Allocation - section shows the Bills raised for a specific job along with the Billing information. The allocation section will display different bills depending on the Job you select in the Job split. (See Figure 104).

Figure 104

In this example (Figure 105) we have a Client Antiques Limited. Antiques Limited has four jobs, Audit, Corporate Tax, Management Consultancy and Test.

Figure 105

The Receipt is for €1000 so this is keyed into the Gross Amount field. The Net Amount will auto populate.

In the Job Split we are going to put €1000 against the job Audit. The current Job Balance is 27,359.67 which is made up of a number of Bills. These Bills are displayed in the Receipt allocation section.

In the Job split under the Amount column you key in 1000. In the Allocated column you choose how much of the Amount figure you wish to allocate. In this instance we are going to allocate the full 1000 so we enter 1000 in the Allocated column.

The next step is to allocate the 1000 against one or multiple Bills. You can do this in two ways;

Manually: By completing the “This Alloc” field in the Receipt allocation section under Fees.

Auto: By selecting the Auto button in the top toolbar. This will allocate the amount starting with the earliest dated bill.

If you are posting against multiple Jobs, repeat the steps above for each job. Once you have completed the receipt, select the Save & Close button to add the receipt to your lodgement.

The Lodgement window will be displayed showing the receipt you just created (see Figure 106).

Figure 106

Before you can Save & Close the Lodgement you will need to enter in the Lodgement Amount. The Lodgement Amount must be equal to the total of the receipts. In the example above the Lodgement amount would be €1000.

Once the Lodgement is saved it will then be displayed in the lodgement listing in DRIVE (see Figure 107).

Figure 107

Allocate Receipts to Bills

This option auto allocates the receipt against a bill. You do not need to select specific jobs with this option. If it is not payment in full then the receipt is auto allocated on a pro rata basis. If you choose to allocate receipt to bills the following Receipt window will be displayed (see Figure 108).

Figure 108

The receipt is split into two sections, the Header and the Receipt allocation.

The Header - (top section) of the receipt is straight forward to complete. It is made up of the Posting Details, the Balance and the Receipt.

Select the Date, Ref No (not mandatory), the Client and input a Gross amount for the receipt. There is also a Notes option which is a text box that allows you to key in notes if required.

The Receipt Allocation - Once a client is selected all the outstanding Bills will be displayed in the Allocation section (see Figure 109).

Figure 109

Completing the Receipt

In this example (Figure 110) we have a Client Antiques Limited. When we select the client the list of outstanding Bills is displayed.

Figure 110

The Receipt is for €1000 so this is keyed into the Gross Amount field.

The next step is to allocate the 1000 against one or multiple Bills. You can do this in two ways;

Manually: By completing the “This Alloc” field in the Receipt allocation section.

Auto: By selecting the Auto button in the top toolbar. This will allocate the amount starting with the earliest dated bill.

Once you have completed the receipt, select the Save & Close button to add the receipt to your lodgement.

The Lodgement window will be displayed showing the receipt you just created (see Figure 111).

Figure 111

Once the Lodgement is saved it will then be displayed in the lodgement listing in DRIVE (see Figure 112).

Figure 112

Lodgement & Receipt Setup

In DRIVE you can define a number of lodgement and receipts settings. You need to select Tools > Settings from the top DRIVE toolbar (see Figure 113).

Figure 113

The Settings window will be displayed (see Figure 114).

Figure 114

Select Fees Ledger > Lodgement/Receipt Setup. Here you can define settings for the Lodgements and the Receipts.

Lodgement

Auto-Build Lodgement Amount: Enabling this will auto calculate the total value of receipts.

Auto-Generate Lodgement No.: Enabling this allows you to create a pre-defined Lodgement number that will increment with each lodgement posted.

Receipt

Auto-Generate Receipt No.: Enabling this allows you to create a pre-defined Receipt number that will increment with each receipt posted. Once you have defined these, select the Ok button to save the settings.

CHeque Payments

Go to Bank and Cash under the left hand navigation panel. Click on Payments and the cheque payments browse will appear as in

Here you can add and amend payments. You can also do bank to bank transfers as well as setup what are called recurring payments. These would be monthly DD’s or Standing Orders. Click the New button and the following payment entry screen will appear as in Figure 116.

Figure 116

Follow the onscreen prompts and fill in the fields to process your payments. This screen allows for both creditor and non creditor payments. The screen will change depending on if a Supplier code has been entered or not. The above screen shows a non creditor payment where you can analyse a payment into a particular nominal code or codes.

If a supplier code is entered the screen changes to handle allocations against unpaid invoices as in the following screen:

Click on the Auto Allocate button to automatically pay all invoices with the amount you have entered. Click save & close and the payment will be added to the bank account as well as the supplier invoice and also the nominal ledger will be updated.

Fees Allocation

Bank To Bank Transfers

Bank to Bank transfers are a simple method of moving funds from one bank account to another without the need for multiple in and out journals. You simply enter the bank from and the bank to account codes along with the amount and save as Figure 118 below.

Figure 118

Bank Reconciliation

DRIVE allows you to run your Bank Reconciliation on any account designated as a bank account. The option can be found under the Bank Transfers option on the left hand navigation toolbar. When you click bank reconciliation the following screen will appear:

Select the bank account and date you want to reconcile. Enter the balance from your bank statement and simply click the entries to tick that they agree with the bank statements. If any payments or receipts are missing you can add then through the Lodgments and Payment buttons at the top of the screen. Save & Close.

It is vitally important that every time you reconcile your bank accounts that a print to PDF is taken. We are often asked to look at reconciliations after some time but if there is an issue we cannot help if we do not have the original reconciliations to refer to.

Purchase Ledger

DRIVE Purchase Ledger displays all the transactions for the particular supplier. It keeps track of the invoices and credit notes you receive. You can see how much you owe and when you need to pay. To help firms have an integrated approach to their accounts we have introduced a full creditor’s ledger. Under this section you can add your suppliers list, post purchase invoices and pay invoices. Each entry posted automatically updates the nominal ledger and helps to build the practice accounts position. Click Purchase Ledger on the navigation toolbar and click suppliers. The supplier browse will appear.

Click the New button to add a new Supplier and the following screen appears:

As with the Fees Ledger and the creating of clients, simply complete the standard data setup for the supplier and click save & close.

Posting Purchase Invoices

Click the Invoices section to post purchases invoices. This section allows you to post the day to day invoices for the goods and services the firm has purchased from suppliers. It also allows you to post linked purchase invoices. If your firm has purchased something on behalf of a client the invoice routine in DRIVE allows you to allocate this cost to a client WIP ledger as you post the invoice.

To create a new Purchase Invoice, select “Invoices” from the Purchase Ledger menu .Select the “New” icon from the DRIVE toolbar. Alternatively you can right click on the screen and select New from the popup menu.

The Purchase Invoice has a number of mandatory fields that need to be completed in order to save the transaction to the system.
Invoice Date: The Date the Invoice is posted to DRIVE
Invoice Period: The Period is based on the Date selected in the Date field. This allows for future postings to be made also.
Invoice No: The invoice or document number you wish to use for your Invoice. (If Auto, see purchase setup for more information)
Ref. No: Not mandatory, you can enter your own reference.
Supplier: Select the Supplier the invoice is associated with.
Net Amount: The Net amount of the invoice – this amount can be split across a number of lines if there are different analysis codes or VAT codes. The nominal analysis code and the VAT code will be automatically picked up from the Supplier record if they have been entered as defaults (under the Account Setup tab of the Supplier).
Once you have inputted all the necessary information, select the Save & Close Icon. Use the Save & New icon if a further invoice is to be posted. The Purchase Invoice will be displayed in the Purchase Invoice listing.

Purchase Invoices With Linked Outlay

DRIVE allows you to recover purchase invoices received on behalf of clients by recording linked outlay. On entering the purchase invoice information, check the tick box in the Linked Outlay column (found on the Nominal Analysis) at the end of each line you wish to recover.

Once you tick Linked Outlay the “Outlay Allocation” tab appears and the Analysis Code changes to the Linked Outlay Control Account as set up under ToolsSettingsNominalControl Codes.

Select the Outlay Allocation simply by clicking on the Tab. The Outlay Allocation will now be displayed.

There are a number of fields that must be completed for the linked outlay to be saved.

Client: Select the Client Code the outlay is linked to. The Client Name will be displayed.
Job: Select the Job the outlay is to be allocated against.
Cost Centre: Select the appropriate Cost Centre (or accept the default).
Staff: Select the Staff member associated with the outlay.
WIP: Choose the WIP analysis outlay code
Amount: The Amount you wish to allocate against the client.
If more than one Client or Job is being allocated, repeat the process above until the total amount equals the Invoice amount.
On saving the purchase invoice the WIP ledger is updated with the linked outlay and these amounts can be recovered by billing from the WIP ledger as usual.

Purchase Credit Notes and Allocation

Purchase Credit Note is prepared to credit a supplier with the amount of goods purchased from him on credit. From the Accounts menu, choose Purchase LedgerCredit Notes. The Purchase Credit Notes browse appears.

Click New. The Purchase Credit Note window appears with the Invoice Allocation tab selected.

Enter the following details in the header:

Date

Enter the date of posting the credit note.

Period

The period within which the date entered lies is displayed.

Credit Note No.

Enter the number for the credit note being generated.

Ref. No.

Enter a reference number for the credit note.

Supplier

Select the supplier name from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the supplier lookup to display the Select Supplier window. Select the supplier you are looking for and click OK. You can add a new supplier from here as well. For further details on adding a new supplier, refer to Working with your Suppliers chapter.

Notes

Enter a description for the credit note being entered. You can also click the Notes lookup to display the Standard Notes window. Select the Note you are looking for and click OK.

Net Amount

Enter the Net amount of the credit note.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is calculated based on the net amount entered and the VAT code.

Gross Amount

The Gross amount is calculated automatically, based on the Net and VAT amounts.

The footer of the Purchase Credit Note window displays two split screens: Invoice Allocation and Nominal Analysis. The following details are displayed in the Invoice Allocation split screen.

Date

The date the invoice was generated for the specific supplier is displayed here.

Doc. No.

The transaction number is displayed.

Amount

The gross amount for the specific invoice is displayed.

Paid

If any previous payments have been made, then the amount paid is displayed here.

Unpaid

The amount that is yet to be paid is displayed here.

Enter the following:

Allocation

Enter the amount that you want to allocate against the invoice for the specific supplier. Click the Nominal Analysis tab to enter the nominal analysis details. Enter the following details:

Net Amount

This net amount is the same as the net amount entered in the header portion of the Purchase Credit Note window. You can make changes to this, if required. Though, you cannot save the credit note unless the net amounts are the same.

VAT Code

Select the VAT code from the drop-down list. Depending on the VAT code selected, the VAT amount in the header portion of the credit note is displayed.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is displayed depending on the VAT code selected. Changes made to this box are reflected in the VAT amount box in the header.

Gross Amount

The gross amount is calculated based on the net amount and the VAT amount.

Analysis Code

Select the WIP analysis code from the Nominal Analysis window, which appears on clicking the lookup button.

Cost Centre

The total Invoice Allocation amount is allocated against the default cost centre. The (Gross - Invoice Allocation) amount is allocated against the suspense cost centre. The default and suspense cost centres are defined under Tools  Settings  NominalControl/Default Codes.

Notes

The description for the analysis code is displayed. This can be changed, if required.

Linked Outlay

Check the Linked Outlay box if the credit note being entered is for some special type of purchases that is incurred by the client and is to be reimbursed by him.

If the Linked Outlay check box is selected, an additional tab Outlay Allocation is displayed. The Analysis code and Notes fields are populated respectively by the Linked Outlay Control code and the corresponding description of the code. Click Save and Close to save the purchase credit note. The toolbar at the top of the Purchase Credit Note window provides the following functions:

The Save & Close button saves the purchase credit note being entered and closes the Purchase Credit Note window.

The Save & New button saves the purchase credit note being entered and clears the screen for a fresh entry.

The Delete button lets you delete a specific record.

The Auto button when clicked does the allocations automatically. This will allocate up to the amount entered in the Net Amount box, provided the total Allocation amount does not exceed the total unpaid amount.

Clicking the Reverse button will reverse the allocations done.

Payments

Payments routine is used to record details of all payments. Payments routine allows for posting of payments to suppliers and non-suppliers. To enter a Payment record, go to Menu, choose Accounts menu  Purchase Ledger  Payments option. The Payments browse appears. Click New. The Payment window appears with the Split Payment Details tab selected. Before entering a payment, the suspense cost centre must be defined under Tools  Settings  Nominal  Control/Default Codes.

Enter the following details in the header section:

Date

Enter the date of payment. The current date is entered for you automatically but you can change this as required.

Period

The period within which the date entered lies is displayed.

Bank

The default bank account as defined under Tools  Settings  Nominal  Control/Default Codes is displayed here. You can also select the bank account from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Bank Account lookup to display the Nominal Analysis window. Select the bank account from the list and click OK.

Supplier

Select the supplier name from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the supplier lookup to display the Select Supplier window. Select the supplier you are looking for and click OK. You can add a new supplier from here as well. If a supplier is not chosen (non-supplier payment), the payment is debited to a nominal analysis code. If a supplier is chosen, you allocate the payment against an invoice.

Notes

Enter a description for the payment being entered. You can also click the Notes lookup to display the Standard Notes window. Select the Note you are looking for and click OK.

Cheque No.

If the payment is being made by cheque, then enter the cheque number here.

Ref. No.

Enter a reference number for the payment.

Gross Amount

Enter the Gross amount of the payment.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is calculated based on the gross amount and the VAT code entered in the Split Payment Details screen.

Net Amount

The Net amount is calculated automatically, based on the Gross and VAT amounts.

Previous Unallocated Amount

The previous unallocated amount, if any for the selected supplier is displayed. If no supplier is selected, this field does not appear. If a supplier is not chosen, then the Split Payment Details tab is displayed. Enter the following:

Gross Amount

This gross amount is the same as the gross amount entered in the header portion of the Payment window. You can make changes to this, if required. Though, you cannot save the payment unless the gross amounts are the same.

Analysis Code

Select the analysis code from the Nominal Analysis window, which appears on clicking the lookup button.

Cost Centre

The default cost centre, if defined under Tools -> Settings -> Nominal Control/Default Codes is displayed. This can be changed as required.

VAT Code

Select the VAT code from the drop-down list. Depending on the VAT code selected, the VAT amount in the header portion of the payment is displayed.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is displayed depending on the VAT code selected. Changes made to this box are reflected in the VAT amount box in the header.

Net Amount

The net amount is calculated based on the gross amount and the VAT amount.

Notes

The description of the analysis code is displayed. This can be changed, if required.

Linked Outlay

Check the Linked Outlay button if the credit note entered is for some special type of purchases that is incurred by the client and is to be reimbursed by him. If the Linked Outlay check box is selected, an additional tab Outlay Allocation is displayed. The Analysis code and Notes fields are populated respectively by the Linked Outlay Control code and the corresponding note.

In case a Supplier is chosen, then Allocate Payment tab is displayed. You cannot have a linked outlay for a supplier payment.

The following details are displayed in the Allocate Payment split screen:

Date

The date the invoice was generated is displayed here.

Doc No.

The invoice or purchase journal number is displayed.

Amount

The amount of the invoice is displayed.

Paid

The amount that has been paid is displayed here.

Unpaid

The amount that is yet to be paid is displayed.

Enter the following details for specific transaction:

Discount

Enter the discount received from Supplier, if any.

Allocation

Enter the amount to be allocated for the specific invoice. Click Save & Close to save the payment being entered.

The toolbar at the top of the Payment window provides the following functions:

The Save & Close button saves the payment being entered and closes the Payment window.

The Save & New button saves the payment being entered and clears the screen for a fresh entry.

The Auto button when clicked does the allocations automatically. We can allocate ‘Gross + Prev. Unallocated’ against the invoices and journals (debit). This allocated amount may be more than the payment amount. The system automatically allocates the extra amount to the previous payments.

Clicking the Reverse button will reverse the allocations done.

Click the Allocate button on the Payments browse toolbar to display the selected payment entry if the entry is a supplier payment. You can make changes to the allocated payment amount, if required.

receipt posted. Once you have defined these, select the Ok button to save the settings.

CHeque Payments

Go to Bank and Cash under the left hand navigation panel. Click on Payments and the cheque payments browse will appear as in

Figure 116

If a supplier code is entered the screen changes to handle allocations against unpaid invoices as in the following screen:

Journals

The Purchase Journal routine allows you to post clear off small balances and discrepancies in supplier account. Purchase Journals are posted to the ledger to make adjustments to the supplier account. Depending on the journal type selected, the tab pages change accordingly.

Entering a Purchase Journal

To enter a Journal record, go to Menu, choose Accounts menu  Purchase Ledger  Journal option. The Purchase Journal window appears. Click New. The Purchase Journal window appears with the Nominal Analysis tab selected.

Enter the following details in the header:

Date

Enter the date of making the journal entry. The current date is entered for you automatically but you can change this as required.

Period

The period within which the date entered lies is displayed.

Journal Type

Select the type of journal from the drop-down list. The journal type can be any of the following: Debit, Credit, Op. Bal(Dr.), Op. Bal(Cr.)

If Debit or Op. Bal(Dr.) is selected, then the nominal analysis tab is displayed. If Credit or Op.

Bal(Cr.) is selected, and then Invoice Allocation and Nominal Analysis tabs are displayed.

Supplier

Notes

Enter a description for the journal being entered. You can also click the Notes lookup to display the Standard Notes window. Select the Note you are looking for and click OK.

Journal No.

Enter the number of the journal entry.

Ref. No.

Enter the reference number, if any.

Net Amount

Enter the net amount of the journal.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is calculated based on the net amount entered and the VAT code.

Gross Amount

The gross amount is calculated automatically, based on the Net and VAT amounts. In the Nominal Analysis split screen, enter the following:

Net Amount

This net amount is the same as the net amount entered in the header portion of the Purchase Journal window. You can make changes to this, if required. Though, you cannot save the journal unless the net amounts are the same.

VAT Code

Select the VAT code from the drop-down list. Depending on the VAT code selected, the VAT amount in the header portion of the journal is displayed.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is displayed depending on the VAT code selected. Changes made to this box are reflected in the VAT amount box in the header.

Gross Amount

The gross amount is calculated based on the net amount and the VAT amount.

Analysis Code

Select the Nominal Analysis code from the Nominal Analysis window, which appears on clicking the lookup button.

Cost Centre

The default cost centre, if defined under Tools -> Settings -> Nominal -> Control/Default Codes is displayed. This can be changed as required.

Notes

The description of the analysis code is displayed. This can be changed, if required. If the journal type selected is Credit or Op. Bal(Cr.), then another tab called Invoice Allocation appears.

The following details are displayed:

Date

The date the invoice was generated for the specific supplier is displayed here.

Doc. No.

The invoice number for the specific invoice is displayed.

Amount

The gross amount for the specific invoice is displayed.

Paid

If any previous payments have been made, then the amount paid is displayed here.

Unpaid

The amount that is yet to be paid is displayed here.

Enter the following details:

Allocation

Enter the amount that you want to allocate against the invoice for the specific supplier. Click Save & Close to save the purchase journal.

The toolbar at the top of the Purchase Journal window provides the following functions:

The Save & Close button saves the purchase journal being entered and closes the Purchase Journal window.

The Save & New button saves the purchase journal being entered and clears the screen for a fresh entry.

The Delete button deletes a specific record and is enabled when the Nominal Analysis split screen is displayed.

The Auto button when clicked does the allocations automatically. This will allocate up to the amount entered in the Gross Amount box, provided the amount is not more than the Unpaid amount in the Invoice Allocation split screen.

Clicking the Reverse button will reverse the allocations done.

Purchase Allocation

The Purchase Allocation routine allows you to allocate previously unallocated payments, purchase credit notes and purchase journals.

Entering Purchase Allocation

From the Accounts menu, choose Purchase Ledger. Then choose Purchase Allocation. The Purchase Allocation window appears.

Enter the following details:

Supplier

Select the supplier from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the link to display the Select Supplier window. Select the supplier from the list.

The amount to be allocated for Invoices and Debit Journals and for Credit Notes, Payments and Credit Journals is displayed in the header section. The unallocated payments purchase credit notes and purchase journals are displayed in the body.

The following details display for each unallocated transaction:

Date

The date of transaction is displayed.

Type

The type of transaction is displayed in this column. It may be time, expense or accrued WIP in case of WIP allocation, bill, receipt or fees journal in case of fees allocation or purchase invoice, payment or purchase journal in case of purchase allocation.

Doc no

The transaction number is displayed.

Ref no

The transaction number is displayed.

Amount

The gross amount is displayed

Unallocated

The total unallocated amount is displayed.

Enter the following details:

Allocation

Enter the amount to be allocated for the specific payment, credit note or journal.

The toolbar on top of the Purchase Allocation window provides the following functions:

Click Save and Close to save the allocation and close the screen.

The Auto button automatically allocates unallocated invoices, purchase credit notes, payments and purchase journals.

The Reverse button reverses the allocations done.

The lookup button helps to show the allocation in different types: Outstanding: displays the allocations which aren’t allocated or are partly unallocated. All: All transactions for that supplier irrespective of allocation.

Recurring Invoices

Recurring Purchase Invoice allows you to automatically set up standard purchase invoices. Once the information has been filled in, this information will be set up every year, month, or week, when the recurring purchase invoice is generated.

Generating a Recurring Purchase Invoice

From the Accounts menu, click the Purchase LedgerRecurring Invoice option. Click New from the toolbar on the Recurring Purchase Invoice browse. The Recurring Purchase Invoice window appears with the Nominal Analysis split screen displayed.

Enter the following details in the header section:

Invoice No.

Enter the invoice number.

Ref. No.

Enter the reference number of the recurring purchase invoice.

Supplier

Notes

Enter a description for the invoice being entered. You can also click the Notes lookup to display the Standard Notes window. Select the Note you are looking for and click OK.

Gross Amount

Enter the gross amount of the invoice.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is calculated based on the gross amount entered and the VAT code.

Net Amount

The net amount is calculated based on the gross amount and the VAT.

Enter the recurring details:

First Entry

Enter the date of the first entry here. You can select the date from the calendar, which appears on clicking the drop-down list. This date is used when creating a recurring invoice.

No. of Entries

Enter the number of recurring entries you want to create.

Frequency

Select from the drop-down list, how often you want the recurring invoices to be created.

Put on Hold

Select this box when you do not want any more recurring invoices to be created using the options that you had specified. The transaction history details are displayed if there are any previously generated invoices.

Last Entry

The date of the last generated recurring invoice is displayed here.

Entries Posted

The number of entries that have been posted is displayed here.

Reset History

Select this option to regenerate the Recurring Receipts.

Enter the following details in the Nominal Analysis split screen:

Gross Amount

Enter the gross amount. This amount should be equal to the gross amount entered in the header.

VAT Code

Select the VAT code from the drop-down list. If a VAT code has been defined for the supplier, then that VAT code is displayed by default. This can be changed if required. Depending on the VAT code selected, the VAT amount in the header is calculated.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is calculated. This can be overwritten, if need be.

Net Amount

The net amount is calculated, depending on the gross amount and the VAT code selected.

Analysis Code

The default Nominal Code for the selected supplier is displayed. This can be changed as required.

Cost Centre

The default cost centre, if defined under Tools -> Settings -> Nominal -> Control/Default Codes, is displayed. This can be changed as required.

Notes

The description of the analysis code is displayed. This can be changed, if required.

Linked Outlay

Check the Linked Outlay button if the credit note being entered is for some special type of purchase that is incurred on the client and is to be reimbursed by him.

Click Save and Close to save the recurring purchase invoice.

The toolbar at the top of the Recurring Purchase Invoice window provides the following functions:

The Save & Close button saves the recurring purchase invoice being entered and closes the Recurring Purchase Invoice window. The Save & New button saves the recurring purchase invoice being entered and clears the screen for a fresh entry. The Delete button lets you delete a specific record.

Click the button on the Recurring Purchase Invoice toolbar. The following window appears:

Enter the date up to, which you want to generate the recurring purchase invoice. By default, the current date is displayed.

Click Show Details to display the details of the recurring purchase invoices. Click OK to generate the recurring entry.

Recurring Payments

Recurring Payment allows you to automatically set up standard payments. Once the information has been filled in, this information will be set up every year, month, or week, when the recurring payment is generated.

Generating a Recurring Payment

From the Accounts menu, click Purchase Ledger. Choose the Recurring Payments option. Click New from the toolbar browse.

The Recurring Payment window appears with the Split Payment Details tab displayed.

Enter the following details in the header:

Bank Account

The default bank account as defined under Tools -> Settings -> Nominal -> Control/Default Codes is displayed here. You can also select the bank account from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Bank Account lookup to display the Nominal Analysis window. Select the bank account from the list and click OK.

Ref. No.

Enter the reference number of the recurring payment.

Supplier

Notes

Enter a description for the payment being entered. You can also click the Notes lookup to display the Standard Notes window. Select the Note you are looking for and click OK.

Auto Allocate

This field is enabled only when a supplier is selected. Selecting this check box enables you to allocate the payment amount automatically.

Gross Amount

Enter the gross amount of the payment.

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is calculated based on the gross amount entered and the VAT code.

Net Amount

The Net amount is calculated automatically, based on the gross and VAT amounts.

Enter the recurring details:

First Entry

Enter the date of the first entry here. You can select the date from the calendar, which appears on clicking the drop-down list. This date is used when creating a recurring payment.

No. of Entries

Enter the number of recurring entries you want to create.

Frequency

Select from the drop-down list, how often you want the recurring payments to be created.

Put on Hold

Select this check box when you do not want any more recurring payments to be created using the options that you had specified.

The transaction history details are displayed:

Last Entry

The date of the last generated recurring payment is displayed here.

Entries Posted

The number of entries that have been posted is displayed here.

Reset History

Select this option to regenerate the Recurring Payments.

Enter the following details in the split payment details screen. This screen is not displayed if a supplier is selected.

Gross Amount

Enter the gross amount. This amount should be equal to the gross amount entered in the header.

Analysis Code

Select the analysis code from the Nominal Analysis window, which appears on clicking the lookup button.

Cost Centre

The default cost centre, if defined under Tools -> Settings -> Nominal -> Control/Default Codes, is displayed. This can be changed as required.

VAT Code

VAT Amount

The VAT amount is calculated. This can be overwritten, if needed.

Net Amount

The net amount is calculated, depending on the gross amount and the VAT code selected.

Notes

The description of the analysis code is displayed. This can be changed, if required.

Linked Outlay

Check the Linked Outlay box if the credit note being entered is for some special type of purchase that is incurred by the client and is to be reimbursed by him.

If the Linked Outlay check box is selected, an additional tab Outlay Allocation is displayed. The Analysis code and Notes fields are populated respectively by the Linked Outlay Control code and the corresponding note. In case a supplier is chosen, then only the header details need to be entered. Click Save and Close to save the recurring payment.

The toolbar at the top of the Recurring Payment window provides the following functions:

The Save & Close button saves the recurring payment being entered and closes the Recurring Payment window. The Save & New button saves the recurring payment being entered and clears the screen for a fresh entry. The Delete button lets you delete a specific record and appears only when the Split Payment Details section is displayed.

Click the button on the Recurring Payments browse toolbar. The following window appears:

Enter the date up to, which you want to generate the recurring payment. By default, the current date is displayed.

Click Show Details to display the details of the recurring payments.

Click OK to generate the recurring entry.

Worflow Management

Overview

The Workflow module gives users the facility to easily plan and manage their jobs and deadlines. The system is split into three main sections;                  Definition of Workflows and Deadlines
                                    Planning of Workflows
                                    Management of Ongoing jobs

Workflow Templates

To define a Workflow Template, simply select the option Workflow/Deadline Workflow Type/Deadline Date from the Tools menu within DRIVE (see Figure 127).

The Workflow Type/Deadline Date window will be displayed. This will display a browse of existing Workflow Templates as well as the System and User Defined Deadlines (see Figure 128).

Figure 128

Select the Add button to create a new Workflow Template. The Add Workflow Type / Deadline Date window will be displayed (see Figure 129).

Figure 129

The Workflow template is divided into Deadline dates, Workflow Stages and the Workflow Checklist.

The Deadline dates can be Fixed, Variable, Recurring or No Deadline. This is used when planning jobs so that they are not scheduled beyond the Deadline Date and it is also used in the overall Management of the Job.

The Stages are how you define the actual job. For example a typical Accounts Preparation job might have the following stages:

Books Requested, Books Received, Draft TB, Partner Review, Adjustments, Adjusted Profit Comp, Final Adjustment, Ready for Signing, Accounts Filed, Closedown.

The Checklist items can be set up to reflect sign off issues required for the job. For example, for Personal Tax it could be a checklist of items such as Deposit Interest Certificates, Rental Income Schedules etc and for Accounts it could be Cheque Books, Bank Statements.

Once you have inputted all the information select the disk icon to save the Workflow template (see Figure 130)

Figure 130

Workflow Management

Once you have defined a Workflow template you can then start your workflow planning. To do this you need to use the Workflow Management module within DRIVE. This is found on the Navigation bar on the left hand side of DRIVE (see Figure 131).

The Workflow Management module consists of the Workflow Scheduler and the Workflow Manager.

Workflow Scheduler

The purpose of the Workflow Scheduler is to allow users to easily plan out their jobs for the year. Using simple drag and drop facilities the user can build up a plan and allocate staff to those plans. The Workflow Scheduler window is displayed when the user selects the Workflow Scheduler from the Drive navigation bar. The user will be presented with the Clients and Staff associated with them on the left and the planner on the right (see Figure 132).

Creating a new Schedule

To create a new schedule, select the “New” icon from the top left of the Workflow scheduler. The Add Workflow window will be displayed (see Figure 133).

Simply input the information needed for your specified client and select the OK button to add the workflow to the planner. You will return to the Workflow Scheduler window once again where you will now see the Workflow you created represented on the planner by the workflow icon .(see Figure 134).

Figure 134

Views and Zoom Options

The Workflow scheduler has two views available, the Project View (this is the default, as seen in Figure 135) and the Resource View (which will show the planner for each staff member, as seen in Figure 136

. The view icons are found in the tool bar of the Work Scheduler (see Figure 135)

Figure 135

The Resource View displays a limited number of staff by default. This can be increased or decreased by using the Visible Resource Count option (plus and minus icons on the bottom right of the resource view). You can also move quickly from one workflow to the next by using the “Previous” and “Next” tabs See Figure 136

Figure 136

Figure 137

Depending on the level of Zoom the planner view will change (see figure) between “Days” view, “Weeks” and “Months”.

Figure 138

SELECT GRADE

The Resource view can be further customised by using the Select Grade option. This is found in the toolbar of the Workflow Scheduler only when Resource View is selected (see Figure 139).

Figure 139

The Select Grades window is displayed. Simply select which Grades your wish to view by ticking the check boxes. Select the OK button to save your selections.

Figure 140

The Workflow Planner will now display only the staff based on the Grades you have selected

Workflow Manager

Once a plan has been produced the Workflow Manager Screen can be used to manage the progress of the workflows through their various stages. The browse has a series of filters which allow you to view by Workflow Type, Stage and Staff (see Figure 141). You will also notice some appear in Blue while others are Black. This is dependent on the tick box selected in the Planning section of the Workflow. Blue is for Priority and Black is for Draft or no selection.

Figure 141

Select your required Workflow by double clicking on it from the list. This will open the Workflow window (see Figure 142)

Figure 142

This shows all the information associated with this particular workflow. It is broken down into a number of sections;

Client & Job Details

Staff Allocation

Planning

Status

Within the Planning section, there is a field called “Type”. There are two options available, “Summary” or “Detailed”. If “Detailed” is selected the following tabs are displayed in the bottom half of the Workflow manager;

Stages – includes the Stages defined in the Workflow and their current status (see below for more information)

Planned – a view of the stages represented through a project view

Checklist – the associated Checklist defined for the Workflow and their current status

Communication – any communications that have been logged

Books-Ins – displays the books in records associated with this particular client

WIP – the clients WIP ledger associated with the Workflow

Notes – for recording further information.

If “Summary” is selected the tabs are hidden (seeFigure 143).

Figure 143

Stages: It is possible to double click on each individual stage to add / edit the Stage detail. The Stage window will be displayed (see Figure 144).

Figure 144

Access Rights

The Workflow has a number of Access Rights associated with it. These Access Rights can be found under the Access Group function within DRIVE (Tools > Access Groups).

Within the Access Group Window they are found under Data Selection > Workflow (see Figure 145).

Figure 145

Workflow Reports

Within DRIVE there are reports available for the Workflow module. The Workflow report is located in Reports > Workflow Management (seeFigure 146).

Figure 146

The Reports window will now be displayed (seeFigure 147). Select the on Workflow Management to expand the options. Now the Workflow Manager Report will be displayed.

Figure 147

Double click on the Workflow Manager Report. The Workflow Manager Report window will now be displayed (see Figure 148).

Figure 148

Select the details you wish to view on your Report. Once you are happy select the Preview button to produce the Report. The Workflow Manager Report will be displayed (see Figure 149)

Figure 149

You can save this Report by selecting the Save icon from the Reports toolbar.

Diary Display

Once the Workflow has been created it is possible to display these in your diary. To do this you need to use the “Show” option within DRIVE (see Figure 150).

Figure 150

The Show window will be displayed (see Figure 151).

Figure 151

Simply tick the Workflow check box and select the OK button to display the Workflows on the Diary.

Figure 152

MAIL MERGE

There are a couple of sections in DRIVE that allow you to mailmerge client information with either documents, spreadsheets, sms or emails. These are explained below.

Merging Documents

To use the Mail Merger option, Word Templates must be previously setup on the network or on a local machine. These templates will have been setup by your Administrator or with assistance from the Relate support team. For the purpose of this guide, it will be taken that these templates have been successfully uploaded onto your network or local machine.

Mail Merge On The Contact Database

Using the fast search option, find the client you want to perform a mail merge on i.e. Flats Limited as shown in the figure below.

Click the Merge button to mail merge a document as circled in Figure 153.

Figure 153

The following screen will appear

Figure 154

Select the particular template and click OK. The letter will merge with the details on the client and a Word doc will open

Figure 155

Documents will automatically be saved under a folder on the network so long as the following settings have been created and setup by the system administrator. Under Tools and Settings and Clients and Document Path.

Figure 156

This facility will automatically create a sub folder if one does not exist.

When you click OK, the letter is saved in a central location and the client will get a link to that saved file added to their communications folder.

Settings for Auto Mail Merge Document

DATA MINING

Data mining allows a user to run a query across a series of clients and then to create mail-merge document or email to each of the clients on the list. It allows users to run simple or complicated queries to establish a list of clients or contacts or prospects they would like to send a message to.

Overview

Data mining provides the user with a simple method of analyzing client’s data and then extracting that data for reporting and mail merging purposes. The following are examples of the kinds of data extraction performed in many practices:

Generate a mail shot and labels for a budget newsletter to send to all clients

Generate a list of clients to request year end records

Generate a list of sole traders, individuals or directors and inform them of their upcoming tax returns

Generate a monthly newswire and email it to all clients

Generate a list of all clients with special income type for direct marketing

Generate a list of all clients with property interests for investment opportunities

Generate a Christmas card list

Setup Access Rights for Data mining

To setup Access Rights at Group Level or at Individual Staff Level for Data mining,

How To Use Data Mining

We will explain how to use data mining by using a good example such as: extract a list of all clients with a December year-end.

From the Marketing menu, choose Data Mining or From the Navigation Bar, choose Marketing and then choose Data Mining. The Data Mining browse appears.

Click New. The Query window appears as follows:

Enter the following in the Details tab:

Description of Query: December Year Ends

Query Group: Books Requests Year Ends (to create a new query group, type the name into the text area. The query group will be added to the data-mining browse when the query is saved)

Source of Information: Client Only

Include all contacts: this field is required if you want to include the clients’ contacts data in the results, such as directors or bankers. If you choose to include the contacts in the result, you can select which fields of the contact you wish to appear in the displayed result. All the contacts fields and the previously selected client fields will appear in the final displayed result upon running the query. For our example, we will not be selecting the include all contacts option.

Date Last Run: date this query was last run is automatically displayed here

Last Run By: name of the staff member who last ran this query is displayed here

Option Last Run: This option is under development and will available in Version 2

Number of Records: number of records that were found matching the given query is displayed.

Next, click the Query Builder tab

This page allows you define the query which will produce the list of records you require. In our example we want the year-end containing December as shown in Figure 159

Figure 159

Field: select the data field i.e. YearEnd from the drop-down list

Condition: select the criteria i.e. containing, from the arrow on the drop-down list that appears when you click the white box directly below the word Condition

Value: type in the value that you require i.e. Dec

What if we also want the list to include clients who have their year-end in January as well as December?
To add another line to the query you can use what we call an “operator”. The operator option allows us to select either “and” or “or” depending on whether you want all the conditions that you have specified, to be met. In our example, we want the list to include those clients with a year-end in December OR January as shown below.

Figure 160

The SQL tab displays your specified query in SQL format depending on the fields chosen in the Fields tab and the criteria in the query tab; this is only used for technical IT Staff

Next, click the Fields Tab, this page allows you to select the specific data you wish to appear on the data mine, by ticking each field. In our example of client year ends in December, we want a number of fields added such as client’s code, name, type, address etc as shown in Figure 161 below

Figure 161

Select All Fields button: selects all fields to display. If you are unsure what fields you have linked to the document you should tick this option. Un-Select All Fields button: unselects all the fields that are currently selected

Press Run Query to produce the Data Mine list OR Click ‘Save & Close’ to save the query you have just created. This query is added to the data-mining window as shown in Figure 162. You can also run the query from this window without opening the query by pressing the run query button.

Figure 162

After running the query where the ‘client’s year-end is equal to December’ the records that matched this criteria will be displayed as in Figure 163. Depending on the query criteria the number of records displayed will vary. You can delete any records from the query by highlighting the record and pressing the delete option.

Figure 163

Once you have created and ran the query you can now perform one of the three following options:

Word mail merge

E-mail merge

Export the data to an excel file or to a text file

Word mail-merge

Click the Merge button to mail merge the list with specific documents to the matching records which we got from running the query ‘client year-ends that equal December’ appears.

Figure 164

From the Select Mail Merge Document window that appears (Figure 164), select the document to mail merge with the generated list and click OK

Upon clicking OK, the mail-merged document will appear as in Figure 165.

Figure 165

Creating New Word mail-merge Templates

You can add a new document template to the current template list in the following way:

Figure 166

On the Template Browse click the add button.

The Add Mail Merge Document window appears as shown in Figure 167

Figure 167

Enter the description of the document to mail merge i.e. Year end letter. Select a campaign to add to the document (optional). Select the document to mail merge by clicking ‘document’ link which will add the document path

Click Design to edit the selected document or a new document to mail merge. Insert the merge fields wherever necessary (for further information on mail merging call Relate Software on ROI (0035314597800) and UK (0044 871 281 3446)

Click OK to add the mail merge document.

Update Communications. When you click Ok the letter is saved in a central location. Each client on the query will get a link to that saved file added to their communications history.

ERROR: Invalid Merge Field
When you click ok on the document, the system will begin the merge. If the fields in the merge document does not agree with the fields selected in the query then the following window will appear. It means that there are merge fields in the letter that are not included in the data mine. In the example we are using, the letter December Year End contains the field FirstName, however, this field is not one the selected fields in the data mine.

Figure 168

To solve this, either remove the FirstName field from the mail merge letter as shown or add the field (FirstName) into the data mine and then re-run the data mine.

If you click cancel then you will get an error on the Word document. To solve this, close down the Word document and again, either remove the FirstName field from the mail merge letter as shown or add the field (FirstName) into the data mine and then re-run the data mine.

E-mail Merge

You can send an email to the list of clients specified from a data mine by clicking the email image button on the data mine query screen. The following screen will appear

Figure 169

Click the ‘E-mail’ button to merge a specific e-mail template to the matching records from running the query ‘client year-ends that equal December’ as shown in Figure 169. Upon clicking the e-mail option you will be shown a set of email templates.

As with the mail merge you can either use a pre-existing e-mail template by clicking OK on the particular template and selecting the email address that you wish to send the email from as shows in Figure 170

Figure 170

If you would like to create or edit a new template simply click edit on the template and the following screen will appear:

Figure 171

As you can see above you can also personalize the email by using the “Insert Merge Fields”

Figure 172

There is also a new option to send an SMS message to everybody in the data mine, you can also setup and reuse SMS templates.

Export Datamines To Excel

With this option, we can send the generated data to an Excel sheet or a text file which can then be saved for further operations.

Figure 173

Click the Excel icon or the export to text file to merge matching records which we got from running the query ‘client year-ends that equal December’ to an Excel or text file as shown in Figure 174 and Figure 175, respectively. You will be asked to give the file a name and saving location.

Figure 174

Figure 175

Marketing

How to Setup Campaigns

How to Use Campaigns in Emails and other Communications

Dashboards

Overview

The Dashboard feature in DRIVE allows you to graphically display practice data in the form of Bar Charts, Pie Charts and Tables. Users can define their dashboards based on their access levels and relevance of information.

It is crucial that your Data is structured correctly and consistently for the Dashboards to provide an accurate reading of your data (the use of Partners / Managers and Departments).

How to Create Dashboards

To define a new dashboard in DRIVE you simply select the Define Dashboards item from Tools > Dashboard Settings.

Figure 176

The Dashboard settings window will be displayed.

Figure 177

To create or define a new Dashboard, select the New icon in the top left of the Dashboard settings window. This will display the Add Dashboard window.

Figure 178

The Add a Dashboard Dialog is split into two tabs, Charts and Access Rights. The field at the top of the screen “Name of Dashboard” allows you to Name the Dashboard.

The first tab “Charts” allows you to select up to six different charts and tables to appear. The charts are analysed as follows;

Chargeable/Non Chargeable

Income

Monthly Income

Recovery Rate

Profitability

Tables

Client Aged Debt

Client Aged WIP

Aged Creditors

To select which analysis you would like, simply highlight the appropriate field and select the icon to move your selection from the Available Charts to the Selected Charts. To remove a selection from the Selected Charts simply highlight and select the icon.

Once you have selected your required charts you can order these how you like by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons. Highlight a selected chart and select the Move Up or Move Down to order the charts.

The second tab “Access Rights” allows you to decide which staff members have access to each specific dashboard. Simply tick the “Apply Access Right” and select which groups are allowed view the Dashboard.

Figure 179

When you have finished applying the Access Rights select the OK button to save the Dashboard. The created Dashboard will now be displayed in the Dashboard Settings window.

Figure 180

Viewing Dashboards

To view the Dashboards you have created; on the main navigator bar select the Dashboards module.

Figure 181

Under Dashboards on the left hand side you will see the Dashboards that you have created. To preview one of these dashboards simply select the one you want from the left hand side. On selecting, the data will automatically be displayed defaulting to the current financial year. Depending on the type of Dashboard you are displaying there will be an option to choose a date selection, this can be changed by clicking on the Date Range hyperlink. This will display the Change Dates window; select the appropriate date range and select the OK button.

Figure 182

(Note Aged Debtors and Aged Creditor Dashboards will always be an “As at” date. There is no date selection available for these dashboards)

You can drill down on the tables to the underlying detail such as on the Client Aged Debt, Client Aged WIP and the Top 10 Debtors and Top 10 WIP Balances.

You can also drill down the charts and fill the screen with it, simply double click on the appropriate chart. Double clicking again will return you back to the full screen.

Figure 183

(Please note all Charts that have a legend with more than five entries will display the top five by value and group the rest under Other).

Setup Dashboard Access Rights

DRIVE allows you to control access to who can create the Dashboards. This is done through the use of the Access Groups, Tools > User Access Groups.

Figure 184

The Access Groups window will be displayed (see Figure 185). Highlight the Access Group you wish to make a change to and select the Edit button.

Figure 185

The Access Group window will be displayed. Under the Access Functions folder on the left hand side, select “Other”.

Figure 186

The Dashboard Settings are located on the bottom left of the access panel. The options are;

Access: User has access to create Dashboard (Tools > Dashboard Settings)

New: User can create a new Dashboard

Edit: User can edit an existing Dashboard

Delete: User can delete the Dashboard

Simply select what options you want to apply to the Access Group by ticking the checkbox. Once you have made your selections, select the OK button to save the changes.

Chargeable / Non-Chargeable by Partner

To Calculate the Chargeable: the Staff Code and WIP Units are being displayed for the Partners whose Client has a value greater than zero for WIP.

For the Non Chargeable: the Staff Code and WIP Units are being displayed for the Partners who has a value greater than zero.