The billing feature of the FSPC program is one of the most utilized functions of the program. It is also the one feature FSPC Product Support receives the most questions on. This usually is because Financial Secretaries do not realize that it is a two step process. The first step is assessing the members’ accounts. The second is the printing of the bills.  Before beginning, be sure to backup your database in case any problems occur during this process.

You should have the dues amounts set for each of the Classes first. This is found by clicking on the Setup menu and selecting Billing.

This screen allows you to set the dues for each class. By clicking on the Class button, a list of the classes included in the FSPC program will be brought up. To change the dues, select the class, enter the correct dues amount and click on Update. For the changes to take effect, Update MUST be selected. If you wish to add a new class, click on Add. If you want to delete a class, click on Delete after selecting the class.

The Billing Setup screen also allows you to select the Billing Cycle for your council. You can select from Calendar (January to December) or Fraternal (July to June). The Last Billing box shows when billing was last run. You CANNOT change this date. The program will input the number automatically.

Once the dues are set for the Classes, close this window by clicking on the X in the top right corner.

You should also set how often you bill. Although the program allows you to bill quarterly (every 3 months) it is easiest to bill annually and a majority of the councils using this program do just that. Billing Frequency is set on the members’ General screen (click on the Edit menu and select Members).

The Frequency is set in the lower right of this window. This member is set for ANNUAL dues. You need to make sure this is set for all your members on each member’s screen.

While you are on this screen, you should check the member’s address and the Class. You should make sure that this information is correct before billing. Also, you should check the member’s ledger screen to make certain that the charges and payments are correct. You can print an Outstanding Balance report (Click on the Output menu, select Reports, Labels, Letters, and select Outstanding Balance report from the Treasurer category). This report will show a list of the members and how much they owe. Once this is set, close this window by clicking on the X in the top right corner of the screen.

Before you do any major function in the FSPC program, you should backup the system. If you encounter any problems or if the function did not run as expected, you will have a way to undo the procedure by restoring your backup. You will be able to return to a point prior to the error and data loss will be minimized. BACKUP YOUR SYSTEM OFTEN! (See Backup & Restore help-sheet.)

Now you are ready to bill your members. Clicking on the Procedures menu and selecting Process Member Dues assesses their accounts.

On this window you can change the Billing Quarter and the Transaction Date. Here you can enter a Bill Message that will be printed on all of your bills. The Members box shows the number of members that will be billed for this quarter and if you want to apply any open credits to the members’ ledgers, then you would select the Apply Open Credits.

If you are billing your members annually, then you want to assess for the First quarter. If you bill semi-annually, then you would bill for the First quarter and then later for the Third quarter. If you bill quarterly, then you would bill for all four quarters. Because you can select the Quarter you are billing for here, you do not need to step through all the quarters like you did in FSPC for MS-DOS. When the time comes around for billing, just select the correct quarter and bill. If only one of your members is set for semi-annual billing, first process dues for the first quarter.  This member will receive half the charge while all others will be charged the full amount.  Six months later process the dues for the third quarter and only that one member with a semi-annual billing frequency will be assessed any dues.

Once everything is set correctly, click on OK. This will assess dues for your members. **NOTE: If you come back into the Process Member Dues area again, be sure you do not click on OK again, since this will charge everyone annual dues again.

You should check the member’s ledger screens to make sure that the dues were assessed correctly. You can also print an Outstanding Balance report for this purpose. If dues were assessed incorrectly, you should restore your backup. This will take you to a point before dues were assessed. You should make corrections to the information and process your dues again.

If you need to add a charge for just a few of your members, then you have to do these one at a time.  Go to the ledger screen for the member.  At the bottom click on the Add button.  In the new window make sure Annual Dues is selected, and then type in the amount and the date of the transaction.  Click on OK an the charge will be added to that member's ledger.

To print your bills, you need to click on the Output menu and select Reports, Labels, Letters. You need to select the Notices category on the left side of the screen and select Bills from the list of reports.

The FSPC program looks at the records and only prints a bill for any member that owes money. There is no reason to change the query from All Records. Click on Run to print the report after selecting Printer in the Output to area. If you want to look at the Notices before you print, select Screen and click Run for the preview.

To print a bill for just one member, click on the Member button and choose that member.  Click on the Select This Member Only check box and run it to the printer.

1/30/02 - Updated 6/24/03