Setting up a Billing Class
There are two purposes for Billing Classes. The first is to financially segregate your customers and limit your exposure to outstanding receivables. Thus, you may select different credit limits for different customers based on their payment history and their patronage. For example, create three classes: a special class, a VIP class and a business outing class. Give the special class a credit limit of $5,000, the VIP class a credit limit of $7,500, and the business outing class a credit limit of $25,000. This is just one example of financially grouping customers to control receivables.

The second purpose for a Billing Class is to identify customer groups for batch billing. The Billing Wizard bills one or more of your billing classes, with one or more charges. This feature works well for billing members annually or monthly. Create your billing class for different types of memberships, such as
Regular Member or Junior Member (see Billing Classes Screen on page 137). You can also classify your customers using Customer Categories. This is especially helpful if you have members who have annual cart fees or locker fees, you can create a category for Annual Cart or Annual Locker. Categories allow you to tag multiple attributes to one customer, and then segregate them for billing purposes (see Billing Wizard on page 200).

Giving Customer Account Privileges
Customers must have charging privileges to make a charge to accounts receivable. To limit the amount of their charging, assign them a billing class. If no billing class is assigned, they can only charge to an account if they have prepaid that account with credit. This may be the best way to handle historically delinquent customers. Make them prepay if they want to keep their charging privileges. To give a customer charging privileges:

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Customers.

3) Highlight the customer to receive account receivable privileges. Click the Change button.

4) Select the Sales tab and then the Setup subtab.

5) In the Account box, place a check in the Active checkbox. This enables the Account button in the Payment screen when this customer is associated with a transaction.

6) Identify the appropriate billing class by clicking on the Billing Class pull-down menu. Remember if you do not assign a billing class for a customer, he/she must prepay in order to have account charging privileges.

7) If you wish to classify this customer in a category as well, click the Detail tab in the Customer screen, and check the appropriate categories.

8) Click the OK button to save your changes.

Charging to a Customer’s Account
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Shopping Cart.

3) Place the customer in the Name field, by searching by last name, phone number or pull-down menu.

4) Load up the Shopping Cart as normal and click the OK button when complete.

5) In the Payment screen, click on the Account button to move the balance to that field.

6) Click the OK button to post the transaction.

7) If the account limit is exceeded, a dialog box displays the limit and balance and prevents posting of the transaction.

Making a Payment to Account
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Shopping Cart.

3) Place the customer in the Name field, by searching by last name, phone number or pull-down menu.

4) Do not enter any items in the Shopping Cart, click the OK button.

5) In the payment window, type in the amount of the payment in the media in which they are paying.

6) Click on the A/R Payment button to apply the same amount to the payment media.

7) Because there is no line item for this payment, it is important to include a note if there is a specific purpose for this payment.

8) Click the OK button to post the payment.

9) The payment will print a receipt and the payment will be included in the user‟s cash close at the end of the day.

Print A/R Statement
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Customers.

3) Highlight the customer receiving the statement. Click the Change button.

4) Select the Sales tab and then the Account subtab.

5) Highlight the statement to reprint or the starting invoice for a current A/R report. Existing statements are those with “Statement” in the invoice column.

6) Click the Print A/R report button at the bottom of the screen.

7) Fore! Sell displays the statement reprint window. If reprinting a statement, go to Step 10. Otherwise, select the statement end date from the End Date pull-down menu.

8) Select the type of report by clicking on the radio button next to the report name. The invoice detail statement contains a balance forward to the start date, a detailed breakdown for individual invoices and payments within the date range, and a total balance. The extended invoice detail statement contains a
balance forward to the start date; a detailed breakdown for each individual invoice including tips, taxes, and other tenders if used in payment; payments within the date range; and a total balance. The invoice summary statement contains a balance forward to the start date, a list of individual invoice totals and payments within the date range, and a total balance.

9) If you are printing on letterhead paper, then check the omit return address checkbox.

10) You can change the statement title or add a statement message by entering text in the respective fields.

11) Click the Finish button.

12) The statement will appear in the print preview.

13) Click on the printer button.

14) Close the print preview window by clicking the Windows close button in the upper right corner.

15) Close Fore! Sell by going to File | Exit.

16) Click Exit on the Modify Customer screen.

Printing a Selection of Statements
1) Log into Fore! Reservations, and go to View | Fore! Sell.

2) Utility | Billing.

3) Click Start on the opening page of the Billing Wizard.

4) Select the desired billing class or classes by checking the checkbox.

5) Select any additional desired customer categories by checking the checkboxes.

6) Click the Next button.

7) Customers with the selected billing classes are listed. Refine the customer list by checking or unchecking the Customer checkbox. Select or unselect all by clicking the Select/Unselect checkbox.

8) When the appropriate customers have been selected, click the Next button.

9) Click the checkbox next to the Print Statements. Click the Next button.

10) Step 4 screen appears.

11) Select the statement start date from the Start pull-down menu.

12) Select the statement end date from the End pull-down menu.

13) Select the type of report by clicking on the statement type radio button. The invoice detail statement contains a balance forward to the start date, a detailed breakdown for individual invoices and payments within the date range, and a total balance. The department detail statement contains a balance forward to the start date, a detailed breakdown for each department as well as the payments within the date range, and a total balance. The invoice summary statement contains a balance forward to the start date, a list of individual invoice totals and payments within the date range, and a total balance.

14) Check the omit return address checkbox if printing to letterhead paper.

15) Check the Include Accounts with Zero Balance checkbox if you want to print a statement for customers with a $0 balance and no account activity.

16) Check the Include Account with a Credit Balance checkbox if you want to print a statement for customers with a credit balance.

17) Check the keep in history checkbox, to log this statement for later recall. If checked, the customer‟s account activity includes this statement. If sending this statement to the customer, make sure this is checked. If printing a statement for internal use only, uncheck this box.

18) Check the email statements if you wish to e-mail statements out to those who have the option specified in their customer profile (see Sales Setup Tab on page 59). This option is checked by default.

19) Change the statement title or add a statement message by entering text in the respective fields, if desired.

20) Click the Finish button. Depending on the number of customers, the amount of account activity and the speed of your computer, and if you are e-mailing statements or not, it may take many minutes before the statements appear in a print preview window. A progress bar displays the status. Let the statements run to completion.

21) Once the statements appear in the print preview, you can print them by clicking the printer button.

22) After the statements have been printed, close the printer preview window by clicking on the Windows close button in the upper right corner.

23) The Billing Wizard automatically closes.

Batch Billing
1) Run a local backup before beginning the batch billing process. In Fore! Reservations go to File | Maintenance | Local Backup.

2) Do steps 1) - 8) Printing a Selection of Statements on page 368.

3) Check the Apply Charges checkbox, then click the Next button.

4) Step 4 is similar to the Shopping Cart screen. Click on the pull-down menu and scroll to the item or begin typing the first few letters of the item to speed the search. Once the item is highlighted click on it or press enter on the keyboard.

5) Continue entering as many items as necessary. To remove an item, highlight it and click the Delete button.

6) Once all items are ready to be billed, click the Next button.

7) Verify the customers to be billed, the total number of customers to be billed and the batch billing total.

8) Click the Finish button to post these charges. Depending on the number of customers, the number of items to be billed and the speed of your computer, it may take many minutes before the billings complete. A progress bar displays the status. It is very important not to interrupt this process even if you have made a mistake.

9) Once the billing is complete, answer yes to print the summary of charges report.

10) Click on the printer icon to print the report. Do not close the report until you are sure that it has printed properly.

11) Once the report prints, close the print preview window by clicking the Windows close button in the upper right corner.

12) The Billing Wizard will close automatically.

Batch Payment
Fore! Reservations can automatically charge a customer‟s balance to a credit card on file.

1) Do steps 1) - 8) Printing a Selection of Statements on page 368.

2) Check the Charge Balance to Credit Card checkbox, and click Next.

3) Step 4 in the Billing Wizard comes up, select an end date. Selecting the proper end date is important at this point because it affects how much is charged to the customer‟s credit card. The payment module will take the balance of the customer‟s account as of the end date you specify, and then subtract payments or returns between the current date and the end date, thus accounting for any partial or total payments made on account to prevent overcharging.

4) Click on the credit card customers tab to verify who will be charged. This list only shows those customers who have the charge credit card option activated in their profile (See Sales Setup Tab on page 59).

5) Click Finish, and customer credit cards will be charged. For a log of the charges, consult the CCBilling.txt in your Fore! Reservations folder. It lists customer name, amount charged, and invoice numbers for your credit card billing sessions.

Printing A/R List
To print an A/R report listing all customers with credit privileges and their current account balance:

1) Log into Fore! Reservations, and go to View | Fore! Sell.

2) View | Reports | Account Receivable | A/R Report.

3) Click the Print button. Depending on the number of customers, the amount of account activity and the speed of your computer, it may take many minutes before the print preview window appears.

4) Once the preview report appears, click the printer button to print the report.

5) Close the Print Preview screen by clicking on the Windows close button in the upper right corner.

6) Close the print AR List windows by clicking the Close button.

Printing Aged A/R
To print an A/R report listing AR balances broken out into aged buckets (i.e. 30, 60, 90, … >150 days):

1) Log into Fore! Reservations, and go to View | Fore! Sell.

2) View | Reports | Account Receivable | Aged A/R.

3) Click the Print button. Depending on the number of customers, the amount of account activity and the speed of your computer, it may take many minutes before the report appears in the print preview window.

4) Once the report appears in preview, you can click the printer button to print the report.

5) Close the Print Preview screen by clicking on the Windows close button in the upper right corner.

6) Close the print Aged A/R List windows by clicking the Close button.

Setting Up E-Mail Receipts
Fore! Reservations allows you to automatically e-mail a receipt to an account holder when a charge is made
to his/her account.

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Customers.

3) Click on the customer whose account you would like to edit and click Change.

4) Verify that the customer has an e-mail address in the e-mail field.

5) Click on the Sales tab, click on the Setup subtab.

6) Check the e-mail A/R receipts checkbox.

Setting up E-Mail Statements
Fore! Reservations has the ability to e-mail a statement to a customer when statements are run through the Billing Wizard.

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Customers.

3) Click on the customer whose account you would like to edit and click Change.

4) Verify that the customer has an e-mail address in the e-mail field.

5) Click on the Sales tab, click on the Setup subtab.

6) Check the E-Mail checkbox under the statements heading (unchecked - the customer gets a paper statement, filled - the customer gets both a paper and an e-mail statement, checked – the customer gets an e-mail statement only).

Setting up Automatic Credit Card Billing
Fore! Reservations has the ability to charge an account balance to a credit card in the Billing Wizard.

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Customers.

3) Click on the customer account you would like to edit and click Change.

4) Verify that the customer has a credit card number on file.

5) Click on the Sales tab, click on the Setup subtab.

6) Check the Credit Card checkbox under the statements heading.

Parent-Child Accounts
The name may be a misnomer, but Fore! Reservations and Fore! Sell allow you to have one account charge to a second account, most commonly a child charging to a parent account, a spouse charging to the other spouse who receives the bill, or an employee charging to a corporate account. Each individual customer can maintain a record of his/her individual charges, but the family receives one statement for all charges.

Set Up the Child Account
Please note that the “parent” account must be given charging privileges prior to assigning a “child” account. The “child” account must have no history or balance in order for it to be assigned to a “parent.”

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Customers.

3) Highlight the “child” customer, whose charges will be passed to another account. Click the Change button.

4) Select the Sales tab and then the Setup subtab.

5) Place a check in the Credit checkbox. This enables the Account button in the Payment screen when this customer is associated with a transaction.

6) Select the parent from the Charge To pull-down menu.

7) Since this is a “child” account, the billing class is dimmed.

8) Click the OK button to save your changes.

View Child Account from the Parent Account
To view the “child” account charging to the “parent” account:

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Customers.

3) Highlight the “parent” customer, or the customer who receives the account statement, and click the Change button.

4) Select the Sales tab and then the Setup subtab.

5) The Charge To pull-down menu has changed to a Charge From list. This is an informational list of “children” charging to this account.

6) Click the OK button to exit.

Charging an Invoice from a Child Account
1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Shopping Cart.

3) Put the “child” in the Name field by searching by last name, phone number or pull-down menu.

4) Begin the sale of items as normal. When all items are in the Shopping Cart, click the OK button.

5) At the Payment screen, click on the Account button to move the balance to that field.

6) Click the OK button to post the transaction.

7) The transaction posts to the “child‟s” account.

8) The charge appears in the “child‟s” history. Place the “child” customer in the Shopping Cart Name field, click on the Customer tab, the Sales subtab and then the Account subtab.

9) Print an individual statement for the child, if necessary, by following the steps outlined previously in this procedure. A “child” statement is not included in the Billing Wizard.

10) The charge also appears in the “parent” account. Place the “parent” customer in the Shopping Cart Name field, click on the Customer tab, the Sales subtab and then the Account subtab. The invoice appears with a red flag in the balance column to indicate that it is a “child” charge.

11) This charge appears on the “parent‟s” statement when doing an individual statement printout or when doing batch statements.

Third Party Billing
Many courses, especially those in destination locations, have formal agreements with local hotels or other third party vendors. As part of this agreement, the third party agrees to make reservations and send customers to your golf course in exchange for a discount on the rack rate. The third party charges the
customer directly for your services, often wrapped in a golf package and then you charge the hotel directly for the agreed upon amount. Because the hotel may be charging the customer an amount more than your agreed upon amount, you do not want the customer to see the amount charged to the hotel.

Tax setup must also be taken into consideration for third party packages. If the third party is charging tax (on taxable items), the sales items must be tax-free. This setup requires two separate sales items: one taxfree sales item for the package, and one taxable sales item to be used outside of the package. To use the same sales item instead of two, mark the third party customer tax exempt. This setup will not apply taxes for the package when billed to the tax exempt third party, but will apply taxes when not used with the tax exempt third party.

Set Up
1) The hotel gives each customer a voucher with a unique number identifier and number of players. The customer then presents this voucher on the day of play. This prevents fraud by other customers staying at the hotel not on a “golf package.”

2) Create a billing class for all third party vendors. Use a name such as Hotel (see Billing Classes Screen on page 137).

3) Create one customer type for each third party vendor such as the name of the hotel (see Procedure 6 Customer Types and Customer Categories on page 301).

4) Create a single customer for each third party vendor. In the Customer screen, use the name of the hotel as the last name, and the name of the concierge or other management personnel responsible for making guest reservations for the first name. If the hotel has more than one concierge sending you reservations, create a customer for each so that you can identify which concierge from that hotel is sending the most business. Give the customer charging privileges and assign the hotel billing class you created in Step 1. For information on creating a customer with account privileges, see the information provided earlier in this procedure. In addition, assign the specific hotel customer type to this customer. Make sure to include the e-mail address of the concierge in the customer setup.

5) Create a single green fee for each third party (see Procedure 14 on page 337). In the sales item setup, make sure to include the Hotel Customer as set up in the previous step from the pull-down menu next to the Bill to Third Party field. If you have created more than one customer for a hotel to track the different concierges, select only one of them as the primary customer to bill. You do not need to create the same hotel fee for each concierge. You may need to create more than one green fee if you have different prices, for example based on time of day or season of the year, with one hotel. You can also create additional items to bill to the third party, such as a hotel cart fee or hotel range fee, if that is included in your agreement with the hotel. Breaking it down to this level rather than a lump sum price, may assist you in tracking rounds and revenue in the appropriate departments and categories.

6) Go to File | Setup | Fees to assign the correct third party fee to each hotel customer type in the fee matrix.

7) Turn on the option that includes reservation notes into confirmation e-mail (see Include Reservation Notes on page 90).

Implementation

1) When the concierge calls, make the reservations under the appropriate hotel customer. Document the hotel guest‟s name and the hotel‟s confirmation number in the reservation notes. The confirmation number provides proof that the concierge made the reservation. If the hotel guest does not show or the
hotel guest cancels his/her hotel reservation, but the concierge forgets to cancel the golf reservation, oftentimes the only way to find a canceled reservation is with the confirmation number.

2) When the hotel guest arrives, hold the mouse over the tee time to see the guest name and voucher number. Collect the voucher and keep it for manual reconciliation, if necessary. From the tee sheet, start the fee collection process which brings up the appropriate hotel fee in the Shopping Cart.

For tracking purposes, put the guest‟s last name and voucher number in the receipt note. The note appears on the receivables statement sent to the hotel. For even better tracking, add this customer as the actual golfer to the system. When posted, a receipt prints for the customer, but the dollar amount of the hotel fee does not appear. Instead it displays PAID. Another invoice charged to the hotel‟s receivable account is automatically generated but not printed. Instead it is e-mailed to the hotel reflecting the true value of the transaction. Other items can be added to this invoice and not impact the hotel invoice.

Note that credit limit or charging privileges are not checked for third party charges. Disable the third party sales item if charging is no longer desired.

Minimums
Many courses require members to meet a minimum spending threshold over a period of time. Fore! Reservations and Fore! Sell give you the ability to track this spending over time and see which customers have or have not met their minimums goals.

Minimums Set Up
To create a minimum class:

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Fore! Sell.

3) File | Setup | Minimums.

4) Enter in the name for the minimum on the first free line.

5) Delete a minimum class by clicking on the minimum name, and clicking the delete button. The minimum must not be attached to any billing classes or sales items to be deleted.

6) Clicking OK saves the changes you‟ve made to the database. Clicking cancel closes the screen without saving changes.

Billing Class Set Up
Once you create a minimum class, you must attach it to those billing classes for whom spending is to be track.

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Fore! Sell,

3) File | Setup | Billing Classes.

4) Click the billing class that you would like the minimum applied to, then click the Minimum Detail tab. Click the checkbox next to the minimum to want to attach to the billing class.

5) Enter the amount of the minimum for that billing class into the Amount column.

6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary.

7) Click OK to save your changes to the database, click Cancel to close the screen and discard your changes.

Sales Item Set Up
You must tag sales items with a minimum so that it can be tracked when calculating minimum balances. This allows you to pick and select which items you want included in minimum balances. Also, this gives you the flexibility to run concurrent minimum programs, i.e. Food Minimum and Merchandise Minimum at the same time.

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Fore! Sell.

3) File | Setup | Sales Items.

4) Click on the item you wish to assign a minimum to, and click the Detail tab.

5) In the lower left portion of the screen there is a Minimum pull-down menu, select the desired minimum.

6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary.

7) Click OK to save your changes, or click Cancel to discard your changes. Alternatively, if you‟re going to be adding a minimum to a large amount of items, you can access the Minimum pull-down menu from the sheet view as well.

Tracking A/R Minimums
Once the above set up is complete, you can track minimum spending for all members through Fore! Reservations. This report shows how much a person has spent on minimum eligible items, and if he/she is short of his/her minimum, and how much he/she owes. To print a report of A/R Minimums balances:

1) Log into Fore! Reservations.

2) View | Fore! Sell.

3) View | Reports | Accounts Receivable | Minimums.

4) Select the date range you want a report for. All sales within this date range are factored into the minimum total.

5) If you want a report for one particular minimum, select it from the Minimum pull-down menu. If left blank, all minimums will show in the report.

6) The Spending Activity checkboxes allow you to configure what level of activity you want to see on the report.

7) The Children option gives you the choice on whether or not you want child charges from Parent/Child Billing to count towards a minimum balance.

8) Click the Print button to print out your report.