Article #238 How to Print Customer Statements?

Answer: There's no more straightforward way to collect receivables than by printing prompt and accurate Customer Statements from Solid Route Accounting™. The Customer Statements list information that's important to the customer, so they understand what invoices are outstanding, and how much on each invoice is left to be paid. By printing statements directly from Enterprise Edition, the company can expect more accuracy, fewer conflicts, and receive payments faster.

The following guide is for use with companies that operate with Pay By Invoice Accounting. Pay By Invoice is the default accounting method that Enterprise Edition uses. Although the Enterprise Edition business system is also compatible with Balance Forward Accounting, please contact a Solid Customer Service Representative before changing over to that accounting method as there may be additional considerations such as data conversion required.

Also, this article is designed to make printing Customer Statements easy! As such, only the most common or required fields will be highlighted in this article. For information on all other fields and menu options that can be seen while creating Customer Statements but not covered in this article, please consult the Solid Route Accounting™ - Enterprise Edition User Manual for much more in-depth information. The Enterprise Edition User Manual can be found on the Solid Route Accounting server PC by navigating to [START / All Programs / Solid Route Accounting / Manuals]. Form the listed volumes, select 'Volume 2 - Professional Operations' and in this manual, go to page 4-31 for information on Customer Statements.

To create Customer Statements in Solid Route Accounting™ - Enterprise Edition:

1. Open Solid Business Central™ and navigate to [Datafile / Customer / Report / Statements] where all the menu options for printing Customer Statements will be displayed. In simple terms, running Customer Statements is a three-part process:
   1. [Prepare] assembles all the outstanding transactions to make them ready for printing.
   2. [Statement] allows the Customer Statements to be printed to a paper or electronic document.
   3. [Finish] is used before the next 'Prepare' and sets today as the date to recalculate interest from.

2. Begin by choosing [Prepare], which will take you to the 'Statement Configuration' screen.

   Note: If first greeted by a warning informing that 'PREPARE has already been used', then a Statement Prepare has been previously created that has not yet been 'Finished'. Either use [Escape] to review, print or 'Finish' the previous Statement Prepare or use [F10] to ignore this and create a new Statement Prepare.

3. In the 'Statement Configuration' screen, the 'Bill Number Range' will be automatically set to look through the earliest to most recent transactions for invoices eligible to be included on the Customer Statements. The 'Last Statement Run Prepare & Interest Date' is not only by default the date on which the last Statement Prepare was run but is also the date from which the number of grace days will be calculated for interest and discount calculations. This field only needs to be adjusted if using Interest or Discounts.
4. The 'Back Date Statements to' field can be used to specify a date that this Statement Prepare will include transactions up to and including.
5. For information on any other fields listed here, please consult the User Manual. Use [CTRL+END] to apply these settings and continue with the Statement Prepare. This process may take a while, so DO NOT INTERRUPT IT. When it's completed, the program will return to the [Datafile / Customer / Report / Statements] menu options.

6. To Print Customer Statements, select [Statement] from the menu options. Immediately a 'Ready for Print' question will be asked. Use the [Y] key to answer 'Yes'.

   Note: Nothing will print now; it's only asking if the system is prepared for printing.

7. A new 'Statement Configuration' screen will display with many configurable options available. Once again, for further information on the functions of all of these options, please consult the User Manual.
   The two most commonly used menu options are:
   1. [All] – This option is used to print all Customer Statements for eligible customers. Once this option is selected, a secondary 'Statement Configuration' menu will show that allows user to select customers of what Statement Type to be included in this printing of Customer Statements. Typically, use the default settings and use [CTRL+END] to print out the Customer Statements.
      For further information on Statement Types, please read Solid Know How Article #239 What are Customer Statement Types.

   2. [One] – Use this option to specify a single Customer Number to print a Customer Statement for. Once the Customer Number is entered, use [CTRL+END] to print that customer's statement.

      Note: [Some] allows a customer number to be specified as the starting point for the Customer Statement print, and all customer numbers equal to and greater than that will have their Customer Statements print.

8. Lastly, the [Finish] button should be used to conclude that Customer Statement period. This allows Interest to be recalculated correctly for the next Customer Statement run. For this reason, the first step in subsequent Customer Statement runs is to use the [Finish] option first and then use the [Prepare] option to begin the next Customer Statement run.