Tracking Utility Consumption

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>ConStar 2000 Property Management Systems</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ConStar 2000 Property Management Systems"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Release Notes"><U>Release Notes</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Investment Manager"><U>Investment Manager</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Merging Financial Statements"><U>Merging Financial Statements</U></A>   |   <B>Tracking Utility Consumption</B>   |   <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="AR Transaction Definitions"><U>AR Transaction Definitions</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Windows Terminal Services"><U>Windows Terminal Services</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=150 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Tracking Utility Consumption</I></div> <div> <B>acking Utility Consumption</B></div> <div> ConStar 2000 for Windows can track utility consumption. When utility bills are paid, the user can enter the amount of usage and the current billing rate. This information can then be used to create an over-view of utility consumption over a specified period of time.</div> <bR> <div> An additional feature is the ability to automatically generate utility accruals, based on the current billing period.</div> <bR> <div> Here is how this works. Once a second utility reading has been recorded in ConStar, the system can figure out how many days are in the billing period and calculate the daily rate.  ConStar then works out how many days remain from the reading date to the end of the month and calculates the value of the accrual. All this information is shown to the user when the utility invoice is posted and an accrual record can be added automatically to the posting list.</div> <bR> <div> ConStar even has the ability to add or subtract a percentage of the accrued value to accommodate seasonal changes in utility consumption. This is explained in greater detail below.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Preparing Your System For Utility Tracking</I></div> <bR> <div> Utility tracking is a function that you need to set up and activate. The setup must be done once for each installed copy of the ConStar 2000 system.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Step 1</B></div> <bR> <div> Launch the Database Administration programme. You will need to know the password to get access to this administrative tool.  From the menu, select <B>Setup</B> and then <B>Management Profile.</B> Click on the tab called <B>A/P</B>. Your screen will look like this:</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="0543e220.gif" border=0 width="574" height="290" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Click the “Track Utility Consumption” option. If you want ConStar to automatically post utility accruals then click “Allow automatic accruals”, and then click <IMG SRC="0554d1a0.gif" border=0 width="77" height="26" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">.</div> <div> You screen will change and look like this:</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="0573e220.gif" border=0 width="574" height="290" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> As you can see, ConStar 2000 can track 3 different utility types. The Quantity column represents the unit of measurement for each utility type. The Rate column represents the value of the unit charge. Make sure these columns contain the correct values. These values will be used for each property you manage.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Step 2</B></div> <bR> <div> From the Database Administration menu, select <B>Vendors</B> and then <B>Edit Vendor. </B>Select one of your Utility vendors to edit and then go to the Coding Tab.<B> </B></div> <bR> <div> You screen will look something like this:</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="0593a170.gif" border=0 width="570" height="279" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Click on the kind of utility this vendor supplies. The type you select signals to ConStar that you want to do special processing for this vendor. When finished, click <IMG SRC="05a4d1a0.gif" border=0 width="77" height="26" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Now click on the “General” tab. The screen will look like this:</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="05c3a170.gif" border=0 width="570" height="279" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> If this vendor is always (or mostly) paid by pre-authorized payments, select that option on this screen and then click <IMG SRC="05d4d1a0.gif" border=0 width="77" height="26" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">.  Accounts Payable - Enter Transactions will automatically switch to Pre-Authorized payment mode, instead of system cheque or manual cheque mode when this vendor is selected. If you pay by PAP for some corporations and by cheque with other corporations, select the type of payment you do most often. When you are entering invoices, you will need to be careful to look at the payment type after you have selected your vendor.</div> <bR> <div> Repeat this step for each of your utility vendors.</div> <bR> <div> You may want to use the navigation buttons to move through you vendor list to identify all vendors that are utilities.</div> <bR> <div> In the future, when new vendors are added they will need to be flagged if you want ConStar 2000 to track the utility consumption.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Step 3</B></div> <bR> <div> In some situations, a change of seasons may mean a substantial change in utility usage. For example, heating fuel usage may jump substantially in the fall. In such cases an accrual calculated on a  reading period would not be accurate.</div> <bR> <div> ConStar maintains tables of percentage offsets for each of the three utility types. These offset tables can be adjusted so that ConStar either adds or subtracts a percentage of the accrual amount calculated.</div> <bR> <div> To see or edit these tables, go to Accounts Payable - Utilities - Edit Accrual Rates. This menu option is only available when the auto accrual option in activated.</div> <bR> <div> The screen will look like this:</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="05efa960.gif" border=0 width="250" height="406" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> You can increase a monthly accrual amount by entering a positive number, like you see here for November. In this case, a 10% increase would be applied to the calculated accrual amount, based on the daily rate from the reading period.</div> <bR> <div> You can decrease the calculated amount be entering a negative percentage, as shown for March.</div> <bR> <div> Each utility maintains its own table of offset percentage. Click the drop-down arrow to select the utility you want.</div> <bR> <div> Please be aware that these offset tables are global to your ConStar system and will affect every corporation the same way.</div> <bR> <div> Click <IMG SRC="05f4d1a0.gif" border=0 width="77" height="26" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> to store your changes.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>