Setting up automated client accounting periods can streamline the process of making client statements at the end of the month. There are three things you need to do so that the automation works for you.
1. Access Level Setup:
Make sure you have the needed access level roles activated on at least the administrator access level. These are only setup once through Agency Config > Access Level > Administrator level >
- Reports section > add client statement - line item role.
- Reports section > add client statement - transaction role.
- Admin Menu section > add CAPs role.
- Admin Menu section > add Closed CAPs role.
2. Client Accounting Period Setup:
This is done once for each client that you wish to make statements for. To do this, drill into a client and click on the accounting period link. Admin > Client > Client Accounting Period:
The settings that are required have a red asterisk next to them:
* Start Date: first time you are going to run a period, typically the 1st of a month.
* Interval: choice of how many weeks or months to run the statement, usually set to monthly.
* Type: this is the funding calculation - gross, net, and split - the most common setting is net.
* Run Delay: even though the statement date is the 1st - set a delay in the creation of the statement at least 5-10 days out to allow checks to clear. For example, if a debtor made a payment that was on the 31st it would have time to clear and still be on the clients statement for that month or if it bounced you have time to deal with it.
* Post or Reporting: Since this statement is between the agency and the client, always use the reporting date for client statements. Here is the difference between the two:
- Post date is when a transaction occurs between the debtor and the agency. To the debtor this is the date that they paid (effective date) For example, in the case of a check, post date should match the date on the check.
- Reporting date is when a transaction occurs between the agency and client. For example, a debtor payment was made last month but the client did not let the agency know until this month. Even though the payment actually occurred last month, it was not reported until the next month.
Previous balance: Although this is not required, it should be checked so that positive or negative balances can be recorded on the statements which can affect the balance due or owed.
Report Types: You will typically see the line item and transaction level client statements listed here. If you do not see them, try activating the roles in access levels. These are reports you want the client to see in their client portal.
Script types: These are special reports created for you by development.
Client letters: Support staff creates these letters for you with the same template tool that creates letters for you to send to debtors. This would be your statement for the client where you would remit payment or they owe you.
Click save and you have set up the accounting period for that client!
When and How does Lariat manage the running of these statements?
If your start date was on the 1st, then all subsequent client statements will be run for that date based on the run delay you selected. For example, the time period is from the 1st to the end of the month and you select a run delay of 10 days later, on the night of the 10th an internal Lariat job will run that statement, overnight, and you can view it on the 11th of the month for printing and mailing.
3. Reconcile payments:
Reconciling payments is probably something you do daily but this should definitely be done before the run delay is set to run. If you think your statements are not showing the correct numbers, this is where you start looking. Was everything reconciled? And even after the run delay has come and gone you can always re-run a statement on the CAPs screen. So that it is up to date when you print it for mailing.
Viewing CAPs
Now that you have added the access level permissions (roles), created CAPs for each client, and reconciled everything, you are ready to view the statements. To find the CAPs report go to Admin > client accounting period where you can view the CAPS for various clients. When you click on a CAP, it pops out the sidebar to the right to view or download and print the pdf statement. You can also refresh data, export the data, re-run the CAPS, or close a selected CAP.
***************************************************************************************************************
How to manually run the job that creates the reports over night:
There is a Lariat CAPs job that runs each night to update any open CAPs (client accounting periods). You should not need to do this once this is all setup and running. But should you need to want or need to see a CAP earlier than its automatic run date, here is how you force it to run today:
Go to Admin > job status > in the upper right check the box for 'advanced' > a 'systems jobs' tab will appear next the the 'job status' tab. Click on the 'systems job' tab > look for job name 'client remints' ID 1031 on the left > click the 'run now' button on the right. How long it takes depends on how many it has to run. You can leave this screen and go do something else and come back later. It could take seconds or minutes.
Once it has finished, on left of the screen, go back to the client account periods screen > in the client field begin typing in part of the client name and wait for Lariat to look up that client. Then you can view the CAP by clicking on the statement you want to see > the click on the details pop out tab > to see the report click on its view button.