Give me a Shortcut! Series Part 2 - More SchoolBooks Settings

We're picking up where we left off from the last post! More SchoolBooks Tips from School Settings! For information about the series or SchoolBooks School Settings, scroll down to check out the previous post.

Accounting Tab

• "Don't Prompt to Print in PO Entry Screen" - Do you enter multiple Purchase Orders in one sitting? If so, you probably want this box checked. This means you'll be able to enter a PO and you won't be prompted to print when you click Accept. You'll be able to enter the 10 that you have and then go to "Print Purchase Orders" on the Entry menu instead. 10 PO's, you just saved yourself clicking "No" 10 times!
• "Use Auto-Complete" - Some of you love it, some of you hate it. Turn it on or off here. You'll usually be able to take advantage of this feature with fields like Purpose and Advisor.
• "Keep Import from Tracks Open" - Do you have more than one deposit to import from Tracks each day? If so, then this was added for you! Check this box to keep the Import from Tracks screen open after you import a Closeout into SchoolBooks. You will most likely check this box if you import more than one deposit at a time (for example, you have a deposit you take to the bank and a WebStore deposit each day).

Three check boxes that could save you time! That's what I like!

To see more "Give me a Shortcut" posts, click here.

Give me a Shortcut! Series Part 1 - SchoolBooks Settings

I am one of those people that likes "settings." I like to change the options on my cell phone so calling, using the calculator, and locking keys are as easy as possible. At home, I find myself changing the temperature on my freezer to get it "just right" often enough to realize it.

So, it should come to no surprise that when I think about making SchoolBooks work faster and better, it would start in School Settings. This screen has MANY options that can customize your daily activities in SchoolBooks. I'm going to highlight some of my favorites that are easy to change in this post, but feel free to explore more on your own!

How do you get there? In SchoolBooks, go to the Management Menu, click on Customize, and then choose School Settings. There are 7 tabs containing information specific to your school. We'll only discuss two today.

School Data Tab

• "Report Date Starting at" - Do you open a report screen (maybe the Account Analysis Detail Report or Cash Disbursement Report) and change the "Start Date"? If you're changing this date a lot - you could probably just change the default and save yourself some time! Setting the default will just auto-fill the date, you'll always be able to change it for a specific report.
• "Default 'Auth By' Value"- If you want to save time, you should have something here. It's most likely that the majority of your time, you will have the same "Authorized by" value. Just type it in here and then you'll see it on the entry screen so you can tab over to the next field or change it on the fly!

Month End Tab

• "Enable Automatic Printing of Month End Reports" - Just check this box and choose the reports you want the system to automatically display before you close your month. It even automatically changes the report date range to just that month! It's a dual time-saver!

I hope some of these tips have helped you! Next time I'll give you three more SchoolBooks Settings tips! And a reminder, the ideal temperature for your freezer is 0 Fahrenheit.

To see other "Give me a Shortcut" posts, click here.

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Coming Soon - "Give me a Shortcut" Series

We're all looking for ways to make the things we do at work faster and easier, right?

I'm starting a series called, "Give me a Shortcut" that will provide you with some easy tips to make things faster, easier, and all-around better!

Look for the first post later this week!

If you have any suggestions, please comment below. This could include shortcuts that you use and want to share with others or it could be an issue you have with SchoolBooks, Tracks, or your WebStore that needs a shortcut!

To see all of the posts in this series, click here.

Free Webinars on YOUR schedule! They're here...

Want to learn something? Over the years, we’ve offered a continuing series of educational webinars on various software and accounting functions, but we have always had a challenge getting people to show up! I’m sure that quite a few of you have heard me complain more than once about the relatively low attendance (considering that we have several thousands of users!) at these free webinars. When asked why, users consistently respond that either the time frame doesn’t work or they simply don’t have time during the day to attend any webinar because of the demands of the job.

Bear in mind that these are not presentations where we’re trying to sell you something. They’re really not! They are about fascinating subjects like yearend closing and bank reconciliations and inventory tracking. We think of these webinars as a win-win situation. They are good for our users because they provide information about how something works or how to do something and they are free! They are good for us because if we can provide answers to commonly asked questions in a one-to-many format (one of us to many of you), that’s more efficient for us – and results in you getting your questions answered and us spending less time on the phone answering the same question multiple times.

So here’s what we’re doing. From now on, we’re recording all our webinars and making them available to you online. That means you can view/listen to them when it fits in YOUR schedule. Maybe it’s before or after school. Maybe it’s while you’re at home. It doesn’t matter because now the recordings of the webinars are available on our website (go to the Training tab/Recorded Webinars). Try http://bluebearsoft.com/training-webinars-archived.htm.

Want a shortcut? This is a list of the recorded webinars we’ve done so far, and we’re adding to this number every month. These are the titles, along with the links and a subtle hint about how many minutes they run so you can judge your time accordingly.

SchoolBooks: Receipts and Bank Deposits
http://bluebearsoft.com/webinars/SchoolBooks%20Receipts%20and%20Bank%20Deposits/lib/playback.html
September 2009 / Time – 24:57

Tracks: Year End Processing
http://bluebearsoft.com/webinars/Tracks%20Year%20End/lib/playback.html
August 2009 / Time – 29:27

Tracks: Tracking Student Store Inventory
http://bluebearsoft.com/webinars/Tracking%20Student%20Store%20Inventory/lib/playback.html
August 2009 / Time – 12:25

Tracks: Fall Registration Made Easier
http://bluebearsoft.com/webinars/Tracks%20Fall%20Registration/lib/playback.html
July 2009 / Time 30:58

SchoolBooks: YearEnd Processing
http://bluebearsoft.com/webinars/SchoolBooks%20Yearend%20Processing/lib/playback.html
July 2009 / Time 22:31

WebStore Session 1: Pre-Wizard Setup
http://bluebearsoft.com/webinars/001%20WebStore%20Pre-Wizard%20Setup/lib/playback.html
May 2009 / Time 16:33

WebStore Session 2: Setup Wizard
http://bluebearsoft.com/webinars/002%20WebStore%20Wizard%20and%20Setup%20Options/lib/playback.html
May 2009 / Time 24:57

WebStore Session 3: Item and Department Maintenance http://bluebearsoft.com/webinars/003%20WebStore%20Item%20and%20Dept%20Maintenance/lib/playback.html
May 2009 / Time 26:57

You can visit these recorded webinars anytime you want. Use them for training new staff on the software, or as simple refreshers for functions you only do sporadically (like yearend stuff). And when you do view them, we’d love to hear your feedback. Did you find them helpful? What other topics would you like to see next? What could we do to improve either our delivery or the content of each webinar? Remember that the only reason these recorded webinars exist is because of you.

Ideal School Answering Machine Message

It’s back to school time and the most important thing right now is that we all remember how to laugh! Listen to this! In my opinion, this is what every school needs to have on their answering machine. This is billed as “Actual message on a school answering machine in Australia” – but I think it’s appropriate for anywhere. See if you agree.

Do you use it? That long, 60-character Purpose field in SchoolBooks

We’ve always prided ourselves for being responsive to our users and adding requested enhancements on a fairly regular basis. In an attempt to keep our software up-to-date and fresh, we usually add new features, new sorting options, new reports, or something fun (you name it) about once a year. Then every once in a while, we come back and check to see who is actually using the new stuff we added.

In May 2008, one of the Version 5.9 changes was the lengthening of the Purpose (Description) field from 30 to 60 characters. We increased the length in Purchase Orders, Invoice Entry, Receipting/Bank Deposits – in short, everywhere throughout the software. Users had been telling us for years that they needed more room for longer and more detailed descriptions. We had held off for quite a while because it was a major change, requiring us to modify almost every data file, several of the screens, and to change the layouts on many of the reports. But we did it and that longer Purpose field has been out there in the world now for a year and a half.

So – here’s the question: How many of you out there regularly use more than the old 30 characters in your Purpose fields? Who out there is taking advantage of all that space to enter long, detailed descriptions of the transaction? Please comment and let me know. All feedback will be appreciated.