Using NEOSYS Agency System: Difference between revisions

From NEOSYS User Support Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
(37 intermediate revisions by 10 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
This covers tasks common to both the NEOSYS Media System and the NEOSYS Job System.
This covers tasks common to both the NEOSYS Media System and the NEOSYS Job System.
== Using full text search ==
This is a quick and easy way to find your documents. Just type in one or more words, or the start of any word, directly into the document no field, to get a list of documents that refer to all your given words.
Currently this applies to Media Plans, Media Schedules, Jobs, Purchase Orders and Estimates.
For example, to search for all jobs with Attention: Steve, and Campaign: Some Festival - type "STEV FEST" into the Job No. field and press the Enter or Tab key.
All punctuation is treated as spaces and what remains are "words" which includes normal words, numbers and codes. Unfortunately, this means that searching for "3/2018" is the same as searching for 3 and 2018 which is probably not what you expect. To search by period, enter something like "FESTIVAL 1801" where the period is in the format YYMM.
What is searched? Generally all text, numbers and codes in the document header and footer are searched. The body or lines of the document are *not* searched. To see the exact fields searched, search for something that does not exist and the error message will list all the fields that have beem searched.
Remember that is it not necessary to type the whole word. Save yourself some time by only typing the first few letters of the word, enough to make it unique.


== Cancelling or Amending Incorrect Client Invoices ==
== Cancelling or Amending Incorrect Client Invoices ==


If you want to cancel an invoice, NEOSYS requires you to issue a credit note. If you want to amend an invoice, NEOSYS requires you to issue a credit note to cancel the original invoice and issue a new invoice with a new invoice number.
If you want to cancel an invoice in NEOSYS you must issue a credit note. If you want to amend an invoice in NEOSYS you must issue a credit note to cancel the original invoice and issue a new invoice with a new invoice number.


You cannot simply cancel an invoice once it is issued by NEOSYS.  
You cannot simply cancel an invoice once it is issued by NEOSYS.  
Line 9: Line 23:
You cannot modify and reissue an invoice with the same number in NEOSYS.
You cannot modify and reissue an invoice with the same number in NEOSYS.


This might seem inconvenient and is not according to manual practice. However manual practice is uncontrolled and relies on the skill of the operator to avoid potentially creating a confusing mess of contradictory invoices. The NEOSYS system should provide a better guarantee of control over records and this is what it does.
This might seem inconvenient and is not according to manual practice. However the manual practice is uncontrolled and relies on the skill of the operator to avoid potentially creating a confusing mess of contradictory invoices. The NEOSYS system should provide a better guarantee of control over records and this is what it does.


NEOSYS makes it easy to cancel invoices or amend invoices so this is not really an issue, and, in the end, it is better to have a complete record of all cancellation or amendments in NEOSYS.
NEOSYS makes it easy to cancel invoices or amend invoices so this is not really an issue, and, in the end, it is better to have a complete record of all cancellation or amendments in NEOSYS.


==== Why doesnt NEOSYS allow canceling or amendment of Invoices after issue? ====
=== Why doesn't NEOSYS allow cancelling or amendment of Invoices after issue? ===
 
This is done to maintain traceability in the system. It is quite possible that a booking order/invoice may be sent out immediately after generation. In such scenarios deletion of documents in the system, after the document are sent out, can lead to errors in accounting.


Once an invoice has been issued then it has an existence outside of the NEOSYS system in the form of files, printouts and emails etc.
Once an invoice has been issued then it has an existence outside of the NEOSYS system in the form of files, printouts and emails etc.
Line 21: Line 37:
Similarly, if you amend an invoice then there would be two or more possibly completely different invoices in existence with exactly the same number.
Similarly, if you amend an invoice then there would be two or more possibly completely different invoices in existence with exactly the same number.


==== In the Finance Module ====
=== In the Finance Module ===


#All the journals generated including the original wrong invoice and the credit note MUST be posted otherwise auditors will question the missing invoice numbers.
#All the journals generated including the original wrong invoice and the credit note MUST be posted otherwise auditors will question the missing invoice numbers.
#Allocate the invoice to credit note or vice versa so that they do not show as outstanding on the client's statement of outstanding items.
#Allocate the invoice to credit note or vice versa so that they do not show as outstanding on the client's statement of outstanding items.
#If you really dont want the invoice and credit note showing on the movement account of the client then create a suspense a/c in the clients ledger and modify the journals Client A/c column before you post.
#If you really don't want the invoice and credit note showing on the movement account of the client then create a suspense a/c in the clients ledger and modify the journals Client A/c column before you post.


== Importing Clients ==
== How to despatch an invoice? ==


Before you start importing anything make sure that you use the clearing procedure to clear down any old data first.
Despatching an invoice is accomplished by:
*Entering a despatch date while creating invoices
*Entering a despatch date on the Old Invoices screen
*Preparing an Invoice Delivery Note


In the NEOSYS system, clients are separate from accounts receivable because a client record may be created for preparing a quotation before an accounts receivable account is opened for the client. Also it is possible for more than one client to feed into a single account receivable. In other words "clients" are not necessarily one to one with accounts receivable in NEOSYS - although in most cases they are.
Any pre-existing invoice despatch and approval dates are not overwritten when setting them using a range of invoice numbers e.g. "1000-2000".
 
You can either prepare separate files for clients and accounts/addresses or a single file that contains all columns for both in one file.
 
The import file must be in tab delimited text format and its name must be a maximum of eight characters with no spaces and a three character extension.
 
Import must currently be done on the server in NEOSYS maintenance mode and F5.
 
=== CLIENT columns ===
 
*CLIENT CODE - required
*CLIENT NAME - required
*CLIENT ADDRESS - optional, one line "quick contact 'address'" to show on top of quotes, may not contain full address and possibly is just a contact name and/or tel/email numbers instead of actual address.
*MARKET CODE - required, must exist in Markets File
*ACCOUNT NO - optional, must exist in a chart of accounts
*EXECUTIVE - optional
*EMAIL - optional
*CLIENT TERMS - optional, free format text to be put at the bottom of invoices, override computer generated terms text from account terms.
 
and optional links to other systems ...
 
*CLIENT ALIAS SYSTEM (a codeword to identify the other system eg SAP, ORACLE, OLD etc.)
*CLIENT ALIAS CODE (the id, number or code of the client for interfacing to other systems)
 
Multiple other systems can be represented in one column separated by spaces. For example if a client is represented in a system called SAP by the code 1235123 and also in the old system by the code DE767676 then you would put the following information in the import file columns.
 
*CLIENT ALIAS SYSTEM "SAP OLD"
*CLIENT ALIAS CODE "235123 DE767676"
 
=== Importing ===
 
In the following example it is assumed that you have prepared a file called CLIENTS.TXT.
 
If you are going to link the clients to the accounts receivable (by filling in the account number on every client), you must first import the accounts. This simplest way to do this is to add accounts columns to the CLIENTS.TXT file as per instructions in the accounts module for importing accounts and import the CLIENTS.TXT file into the accounts module. See http://userwiki.neosys.com/index.php/Importing_Accounts_and_Addresses
 
First verify that the clients can be imported and correct any errors before proceeding
 
IMPORTX D:\CLIENTS.TXT CLIENTS
 
Import the clients
 
IMPORTX D:\CLIENTS.TXT CLIENTS (C)
 
Get a List of Clients to verify that the clients have been correctly imported.
 
== Importing Suppliers ==
 
Please follow the notes on importing clients except for the columns in the file.
 
If you are importing media suppliers then there is a alternative special procedure for importing suppliers and media vehicles that may be more more helpful in that case. See [[Using_NEOSYS_Media_System#Importing_Supplier_and_Vehicles]]
 
=== SUPPLIER COLUMNS ===
 
*SUPPLIER CODE - required
*SUPPLIER NAME - required
*SUPPLIER ADDRESS - optional, one line short address for orders
*MEDIA NONMEDIA - required, "M" for Media Supplier, "P" for Non-media Supplier, "MP" for suppliers that need to work in both the media and jobs module of NEOSYS.
*CONTACT NAME - optional, used for orders
*CONTACT NUMBERS - optional, used for orders
*CONTACT EMAIL - optional, used for orders
*ACCOUNT NO - optional, used for accrued costs if the system is configured to accrue by supplier.
 
and optional links to other systems ...
 
*SUPPLIER ALIAS SYSTEM (a codeword to identify the other system eg SAP, ORACLE, OLD etc.)
*SUPPLIER ALIAS CODE (the id, number or code of the supplier for interfacing to other systems)
 
Multiple other systems can be represented as follows. For example if a supplier is represented in a system called SAP by the code 1235123 and also in the old system by the code DE767676 then you would put the following information in the import file columns. The space before the 1,2 etc is mandatory but the colon must be omitted. The column name is not case sensitive.
 
*SUPPLIER ALIAS SYSTEM 1: SAP
*SUPPLIER ALIAS CODE 2: 1235123
*SUPPLIER ALIAS SYSTEM 2: OLD
*SUPPLIER ALIAS CODE 2: DE767676
 
== Giving Production Executives (or other Groups) Access to Media Invoices ==
 
In the Authorisation File:
 
# In the Tasks section, sort the tasks alphabetically by the lock column (click on the column heading) and check that the code "AMI" is not used already for any lock code. We suggest the code AMI to remind us that this lock represents "access media invoices" - rather like AM is commonly used to represent "access media". If you choose any other code instead of AMI then substitute the code you decide on for AMI in the following instructions.
# In the Tasks section, change the lock next to the MEDIA INVOICE ACCESS task to be AMI.
# Add the key AMI to the list of keys for each of the user groups (not each of the users) that previously had access to media invoices (eg finance, media etc) and also include it in the list of keys for the user group for Production Executive (or other groups) that you wish to enable.
# In the Users section, next to '''every''' user who is to have access to media invoices, use the popup to change the menu to be "Production Media" if they had "Production" before or to "Production Media Management" if they had "Production Management" before. Management gives them access to the billing analysis reports subject to further authorisations.


Also, See [http://userwiki.neosys.com/index.php/Media_FAQ#What_is_a_despatch_status.3F Despatch status in Media]


== Putting Year in Document Numbers ==
== Putting Year in Document Numbers ==


The Configuration File allows you to define the format of document numbers instead of pure sequential numbers however this should be avoided.
The Configuration File allows you to define the format of document numbers instead of pure sequential numbers however this should be avoided.
Line 127: Line 64:
Avoid doing it or expect lots of petty annoying problems. There are no perfect solutions to this issue other than avoiding it in the first place by using simple clear permanently incrementing numbers.
Avoid doing it or expect lots of petty annoying problems. There are no perfect solutions to this issue other than avoiding it in the first place by using simple clear permanently incrementing numbers.


These problems do not apply to invoice numbers which can happily have the year in them without problem.
These problems do not apply to invoice numbers which can happily have the year in them without a problem.
 
Refer link [http://userwiki.neosys.com/index.php/Setting_up_and_Configuring_NEOSYS_Agency_System#Changing_Document_Numbering_Pattern Changing Document numbering pattern]


=== Problem controlling the year of a  document ===
=== Problem controlling the year of a  document ===


When you create new documents, NEOSYS will automatically use the CURRENT DATE to generate the year. This is a practical problem that may be overcome at some later date.
When you create new documents, NEOSYS will automatically use the CURRENT DATE to generate the year. This is a practical problem that may be overcome at some later date.
   
   
=== Problem of what year should be ===
=== Problem of what year should be ===


When creating some forward-looking documents like media schedules, the year that the schedule was created will be misleading if the schedule is for the following year.
When creating some forward looking documents like media schedules, the year that the schedule was created will be misleading if the schedule is for the following year.
 
   
   
=== Problem with related documents having different years ===
=== Problem with related documents having different years ===


You could have a job numbered 2006/9999 which has a purchase order 2007/99.
You could have a job numbered 2006/9999 which has a purchase order 2007/99.


Line 150: Line 84:
There is no escape from this logical issue.
There is no escape from this logical issue.


=== Problem having to type a long document number  ===
=== Problem having to type a long document number  ===


 
Practically as of now, if you want to access a document in NEOSYS you have to type the full document number including the year. NEOSYS might be changed to assume the current year but accessing a prior year or future documents will still require more effort to type in the longer full document number.
Practically as of now, if you want to access a document in NEOSYS you have to type the full document number including the year. NEOSYS might be changed to assume the current year but accessing prior year or future documents will still require more effort to type in the longer full document number.
   
   
=== Confusion about which document is meant ===
=== Confusion about which document is meant ===
   
   
People will often refer to documents by the sequential number part only since they judge that the year is obvious. This can result in confusion. For example, does job number 1234 mean job number 1234 of 2006/2006 or job number 2007/1234. The confusion can always be resolved by checking on NEOSYS but takes time.
People will often refer to documents by the sequential number part only since they judge that the year is obvious. This can result in confusion. For example, does job number 1234 mean job number 1234 of 2006/2006 or job number 2007/1234. The confusion can always be resolved by checking on NEOSYS but takes time.


=== Problem with Ordering of Numbers ===
=== Problem with Ordering of Numbers ===


NEOSYS doesn't right justify numbers with leading zeros (egg 2007/001) so unless NEOSYS is changed to start numbers from say 1000 or 10000 each year you will have the following numbers which may confuse and may not sort correctly in NEOSYS reports or when exported into Excel etc.
NEOSYS doesn't right justify numbers with leading zeros (egg 2007/001) so unless NEOSYS is changed to start numbers from say 1000 or 10000 each year you will have the following numbers which may confuse and may not sort correctly in NEOSYS reports or when exported into Excel etc.


Line 185: Line 113:


2007/12
2007/12


== How do I design my own columns for Billing Analysis? ==
== How do I design my own columns for Billing Analysis? ==
   
   
Use Billing Analysis Column design to design the columns and then create Billing Analysis Reports which use those column designs.
Use Billing Analysis Column Design to design the columns and then create Billing Analysis Reports using those column designs.
   
   
There are many options available to control what appears in each column of a column design. You can look at and copy the pre-designed NEOSYS column designs to see how the standard NEOSYS billing analysis reports are done.
There are many options available to control what appears in each column of a column design. You can look at and copy the pre-designed NEOSYS column designs to see how the standard NEOSYS billing analysis reports are designed.
 


== Defining Column Titles in Billing Analysis Column Design ==
== Defining Column Titles in Billing Analysis Column Design ==
Line 198: Line 124:
You can simply type the text of the column heading that you want. For example "Budget".
You can simply type the text of the column heading that you want. For example "Budget".
   
   
If you have selected multiple information types or categories to be displayed then you either get automatic titles (see below) or you can indicate the titles for each one separated by ; characters. For example "Actual;Budget".
If you have selected multiple information types or categories to be displayed then you either get automatic titles (see below) or you can indicate the titles for each one separated by; characters. For example "Actual;Budget".
   
   
* HIDDEN  
* HIDDEN  
Line 213: Line 139:
   
   
You can select one item from each of the above groups to automatically generate the column title from the options that you have selected in the Information type and Category columns. This is useful when you choose multiple Information Types and Categories. The various forms of capitalisation allow you to choose the style as initial capitalisation, full capitalisation and all lower case.
You can select one item from each of the above groups to automatically generate the column title from the options that you have selected in the Information type and Category columns. This is useful when you choose multiple Information Types and Categories. The various forms of capitalisation allow you to choose the style as initial capitalisation, full capitalisation and all lower case.
== Designing billing analysis report to show 'Type' as columns ==
NEOSYS allows you to display Media or Job Types as column headings in Billing Analysis reports, by choosing the "Selected Type" option to choose a particular Type and entering the corresponding Type's name as the column's Title.
[[image:reportbytype.png]]


== Designing multiperiod billing analysis columns ==
== Designing multiperiod billing analysis columns ==
   
   
NEOSYS doesnt allow you select a period range but you can use hidden columns to achieve the same result
NEOSYS doesn't allow you select a period range but you can use hidden columns to achieve the same result
   
   
For example you might well want a quarterly billings analysis which would require 12 hidden columns plus 4 normal columns. This report would not be sensitive to the period selected at runtime since all the columns are fixed periods.
For example, you might well want a quarterly billings analysis which would require 12 hidden columns plus 4 normal columns. This report would not be sensitive to the period selected at runtime since all the columns are fixed periods.


[[image:quarterlybilling.jpg]]
[[image:quarterlybilling.jpg]]
== How does billing analysis code work? ==
A billing analysis code has multiple parts as given below that identify all the possible break-downs of company revenue. Whereas the P&L accounts are typically only broken by type of business.
28/29*1*clientcode*marketcode*suppliercode*media/jobtype*?*?*?*executivename
28/29 stands for income/cost account.
Part 2 of the analysis code will always be 1. In future, it might be 1-7 to indicate gross/load/disc/comm/fee/tax/other fractions of income and costs.
If a particular account number in the finance module is mentioned in the job or media types file then that account is considered to be a P&L billing or cost account. The NEOSYS finance module imposes a restriction that all postings to P&L billing and cost accounts must have an analysis code. This restriction applies at a low level and is therefore regardless of the journal type or the source being automatic or manually entered. By comparison, postings to any other account NEOSYS Finance module imposes a restriction that they cannot have an analysis code. The end result is that the billing and cost section of the NEOSYS Profit and Loss report will always agree, to the cent, with the NEOSYS billing analysis reports.
NEOSYS billing analysis reports are, by default, based on actual posted vouchers on income and cost accounts in the finance module. Find more on why [[Using_NEOSYS_Agency_System#Why_is_NEOSYS_billing_analysis_based_by_default_on_POSTED_invoices_and_not_ISSUED_invoices | Billing Analysis reports are based on posted vouchers]]. Such postings are usually generated by the various billing modules of NEOSYS but can also be entered manually directly into the finance journals for adjustments and billing or cost matters not handled by NEOSYS billing modules like annual discounts
NEOSYS billing analysis reports can also be customized to show billings at prior stages like budget/forecast/plan/scheduled/invoiced billings etc. However, this discussion is related to analysis codes here and that is relevant only to posted vouchers.
Finance entries generated by the NEOSYS billing modules typically appear in the finance module as unposted journals and are only posted by finance staff when they are ready. Generally it is a bad idea for Finance to amend the generated journals before posting because this results in discrepancies between financial reports and operational reports.
It is also possible to configure NEOSYS to post all generated finance journals immediately. There may be cases where the posting cannot be done immediately because of finance validation issues and in this case NEOSYS falls back to leave the problematic journals unposted for manual invention prior to posting.
== Why is NEOSYS billing analysis based by default on POSTED invoices and not ISSUED invoices ==
As a principle, billing analysis should agree with finance P&L continuously. If the one disagrees with the other at any point, then we can say that either one or the one is not a true statement of the facts, or that one of them is out of date. Neither option seems appealing.
However there is a far greater advantage to keeping the billing analysis in agreement with the P&L. If the operational departments can make the billing analysis say a different thing from the finance, then each department can do their own thing and this is uncontrolled behaviour. NEOSYS binds two departments loosely together and forces BOTH to become better organised and more up to date. This is a subtle and powerful advantage of using NEOSYS.
Operational departments and finance departments are often used to working independently but this is generally considered a bad idea in an integrated online world. They often expect and want to use NEOSYS to replicate what they were doing before using NEOSYS. However, NEOSYS is by default setup to encourage interdependence between operational departments and the finance team. This fosters good practices and mitigates old disjointed, uncontrolled, independent and duplicated work.
While departmental chief sometimes are not quite aware of the advantages of close cooperation, the overall managers and owners of many businesses typically value NEOSYS for acting as the glue and oil between the various departments of their company. Therefore when dealing with departmental heads, NEOSYS support staff should bear in mind NEOSYS' good working practices and discourage or at least not encourage the customisation and deformation of NEOSYS to handle old style procedures - despite the fact that NEOSYS is designed to be highly customisable and capable of doing so.
Note that in case NEOSYS finance module is not installed, all default billing analysis reports can be configured to work on issued invoices using a single configuration option. This is not recommended where NEOSYS finance module is operational, for the above reasons.
Note also that NEOSYS billing analysis of ISSUED INVOICES may be based on the operational dates rather than the invoice dates. Such a report is only useful for operational purposes, and little use for finance management or control.

Latest revision as of 06:23, 23 September 2019

This covers tasks common to both the NEOSYS Media System and the NEOSYS Job System.

Using full text search

This is a quick and easy way to find your documents. Just type in one or more words, or the start of any word, directly into the document no field, to get a list of documents that refer to all your given words.

Currently this applies to Media Plans, Media Schedules, Jobs, Purchase Orders and Estimates.

For example, to search for all jobs with Attention: Steve, and Campaign: Some Festival - type "STEV FEST" into the Job No. field and press the Enter or Tab key.

All punctuation is treated as spaces and what remains are "words" which includes normal words, numbers and codes. Unfortunately, this means that searching for "3/2018" is the same as searching for 3 and 2018 which is probably not what you expect. To search by period, enter something like "FESTIVAL 1801" where the period is in the format YYMM.

What is searched? Generally all text, numbers and codes in the document header and footer are searched. The body or lines of the document are *not* searched. To see the exact fields searched, search for something that does not exist and the error message will list all the fields that have beem searched.

Remember that is it not necessary to type the whole word. Save yourself some time by only typing the first few letters of the word, enough to make it unique.

Cancelling or Amending Incorrect Client Invoices

If you want to cancel an invoice in NEOSYS you must issue a credit note. If you want to amend an invoice in NEOSYS you must issue a credit note to cancel the original invoice and issue a new invoice with a new invoice number.

You cannot simply cancel an invoice once it is issued by NEOSYS.

You cannot modify and reissue an invoice with the same number in NEOSYS.

This might seem inconvenient and is not according to manual practice. However the manual practice is uncontrolled and relies on the skill of the operator to avoid potentially creating a confusing mess of contradictory invoices. The NEOSYS system should provide a better guarantee of control over records and this is what it does.

NEOSYS makes it easy to cancel invoices or amend invoices so this is not really an issue, and, in the end, it is better to have a complete record of all cancellation or amendments in NEOSYS.

Why doesn't NEOSYS allow cancelling or amendment of Invoices after issue?

This is done to maintain traceability in the system. It is quite possible that a booking order/invoice may be sent out immediately after generation. In such scenarios deletion of documents in the system, after the document are sent out, can lead to errors in accounting.

Once an invoice has been issued then it has an existence outside of the NEOSYS system in the form of files, printouts and emails etc.

There is no way to be sure that someone has not sent (and will not send) the cancelled invoice to the client.

Similarly, if you amend an invoice then there would be two or more possibly completely different invoices in existence with exactly the same number.

In the Finance Module

  1. All the journals generated including the original wrong invoice and the credit note MUST be posted otherwise auditors will question the missing invoice numbers.
  2. Allocate the invoice to credit note or vice versa so that they do not show as outstanding on the client's statement of outstanding items.
  3. If you really don't want the invoice and credit note showing on the movement account of the client then create a suspense a/c in the clients ledger and modify the journals Client A/c column before you post.

How to despatch an invoice?

Despatching an invoice is accomplished by:

  • Entering a despatch date while creating invoices
  • Entering a despatch date on the Old Invoices screen
  • Preparing an Invoice Delivery Note

Any pre-existing invoice despatch and approval dates are not overwritten when setting them using a range of invoice numbers e.g. "1000-2000".

Also, See Despatch status in Media

Putting Year in Document Numbers

The Configuration File allows you to define the format of document numbers instead of pure sequential numbers however this should be avoided.

The idea of having the year in the document number is usually based on prior manual numbering practices without consideration of automated procedures and is to be avoided for a number of practical and theoretical reasons.

Year in the number is often a good procedure when done manually but adds additional complexity which is difficult to automate.

Avoid doing it or expect lots of petty annoying problems. There are no perfect solutions to this issue other than avoiding it in the first place by using simple clear permanently incrementing numbers.

These problems do not apply to invoice numbers which can happily have the year in them without a problem.

Refer link Changing Document numbering pattern

Problem controlling the year of a document

When you create new documents, NEOSYS will automatically use the CURRENT DATE to generate the year. This is a practical problem that may be overcome at some later date.

Problem of what year should be

When creating some forward-looking documents like media schedules, the year that the schedule was created will be misleading if the schedule is for the following year.

Problem with related documents having different years

You could have a job numbered 2006/9999 which has a purchase order 2007/99.

If you think that you could number the purchase orders with the year of the original job then you have the alternative problem of a purchase order numbered 2006/9999 which is dated in 2007

There is no escape from this logical issue.

Problem having to type a long document number

Practically as of now, if you want to access a document in NEOSYS you have to type the full document number including the year. NEOSYS might be changed to assume the current year but accessing a prior year or future documents will still require more effort to type in the longer full document number.

Confusion about which document is meant

People will often refer to documents by the sequential number part only since they judge that the year is obvious. This can result in confusion. For example, does job number 1234 mean job number 1234 of 2006/2006 or job number 2007/1234. The confusion can always be resolved by checking on NEOSYS but takes time.

Problem with Ordering of Numbers

NEOSYS doesn't right justify numbers with leading zeros (egg 2007/001) so unless NEOSYS is changed to start numbers from say 1000 or 10000 each year you will have the following numbers which may confuse and may not sort correctly in NEOSYS reports or when exported into Excel etc. 


<YEAR>/<NUMBER>

2007/1

2007/2

2007/3

etc

2007/10

2007/11

2007/12

How do I design my own columns for Billing Analysis?

Use Billing Analysis Column Design to design the columns and then create Billing Analysis Reports using those column designs.

There are many options available to control what appears in each column of a column design. You can look at and copy the pre-designed NEOSYS column designs to see how the standard NEOSYS billing analysis reports are designed.

Defining Column Titles in Billing Analysis Column Design

You can simply type the text of the column heading that you want. For example "Budget".

If you have selected multiple information types or categories to be displayed then you either get automatic titles (see below) or you can indicate the titles for each one separated by; characters. For example "Actual;Budget".

  • HIDDEN

If you leave the title column blank (or select HIDDEN from the popup) then the column will not be shown on the report. Hidden columns are useful when you need to derive a calculated column from other columns that you do not want shown on the report. You might also want to hide a column temporarily on a design and then restore it later without having to retype it from scratch.

  • %Category%
  • %category%
  • %CATEGORY%
  • %Infotype%
  • %infotype%
  • %INFOTYPE%

You can select one item from each of the above groups to automatically generate the column title from the options that you have selected in the Information type and Category columns. This is useful when you choose multiple Information Types and Categories. The various forms of capitalisation allow you to choose the style as initial capitalisation, full capitalisation and all lower case.

Designing billing analysis report to show 'Type' as columns

NEOSYS allows you to display Media or Job Types as column headings in Billing Analysis reports, by choosing the "Selected Type" option to choose a particular Type and entering the corresponding Type's name as the column's Title.

Reportbytype.png

Designing multiperiod billing analysis columns

NEOSYS doesn't allow you select a period range but you can use hidden columns to achieve the same result

For example, you might well want a quarterly billings analysis which would require 12 hidden columns plus 4 normal columns. This report would not be sensitive to the period selected at runtime since all the columns are fixed periods.

Quarterlybilling.jpg

How does billing analysis code work?

A billing analysis code has multiple parts as given below that identify all the possible break-downs of company revenue. Whereas the P&L accounts are typically only broken by type of business. 

28/29*1*clientcode*marketcode*suppliercode*media/jobtype*?*?*?*executivename

28/29 stands for income/cost account.

Part 2 of the analysis code will always be 1. In future, it might be 1-7 to indicate gross/load/disc/comm/fee/tax/other fractions of income and costs.

If a particular account number in the finance module is mentioned in the job or media types file then that account is considered to be a P&L billing or cost account. The NEOSYS finance module imposes a restriction that all postings to P&L billing and cost accounts must have an analysis code. This restriction applies at a low level and is therefore regardless of the journal type or the source being automatic or manually entered. By comparison, postings to any other account NEOSYS Finance module imposes a restriction that they cannot have an analysis code. The end result is that the billing and cost section of the NEOSYS Profit and Loss report will always agree, to the cent, with the NEOSYS billing analysis reports.

NEOSYS billing analysis reports are, by default, based on actual posted vouchers on income and cost accounts in the finance module. Find more on why Billing Analysis reports are based on posted vouchers. Such postings are usually generated by the various billing modules of NEOSYS but can also be entered manually directly into the finance journals for adjustments and billing or cost matters not handled by NEOSYS billing modules like annual discounts

NEOSYS billing analysis reports can also be customized to show billings at prior stages like budget/forecast/plan/scheduled/invoiced billings etc. However, this discussion is related to analysis codes here and that is relevant only to posted vouchers.

Finance entries generated by the NEOSYS billing modules typically appear in the finance module as unposted journals and are only posted by finance staff when they are ready. Generally it is a bad idea for Finance to amend the generated journals before posting because this results in discrepancies between financial reports and operational reports.

It is also possible to configure NEOSYS to post all generated finance journals immediately. There may be cases where the posting cannot be done immediately because of finance validation issues and in this case NEOSYS falls back to leave the problematic journals unposted for manual invention prior to posting.

Why is NEOSYS billing analysis based by default on POSTED invoices and not ISSUED invoices

As a principle, billing analysis should agree with finance P&L continuously. If the one disagrees with the other at any point, then we can say that either one or the one is not a true statement of the facts, or that one of them is out of date. Neither option seems appealing.

However there is a far greater advantage to keeping the billing analysis in agreement with the P&L. If the operational departments can make the billing analysis say a different thing from the finance, then each department can do their own thing and this is uncontrolled behaviour. NEOSYS binds two departments loosely together and forces BOTH to become better organised and more up to date. This is a subtle and powerful advantage of using NEOSYS.

Operational departments and finance departments are often used to working independently but this is generally considered a bad idea in an integrated online world. They often expect and want to use NEOSYS to replicate what they were doing before using NEOSYS. However, NEOSYS is by default setup to encourage interdependence between operational departments and the finance team. This fosters good practices and mitigates old disjointed, uncontrolled, independent and duplicated work.

While departmental chief sometimes are not quite aware of the advantages of close cooperation, the overall managers and owners of many businesses typically value NEOSYS for acting as the glue and oil between the various departments of their company. Therefore when dealing with departmental heads, NEOSYS support staff should bear in mind NEOSYS' good working practices and discourage or at least not encourage the customisation and deformation of NEOSYS to handle old style procedures - despite the fact that NEOSYS is designed to be highly customisable and capable of doing so.

Note that in case NEOSYS finance module is not installed, all default billing analysis reports can be configured to work on issued invoices using a single configuration option. This is not recommended where NEOSYS finance module is operational, for the above reasons.

Note also that NEOSYS billing analysis of ISSUED INVOICES may be based on the operational dates rather than the invoice dates. Such a report is only useful for operational purposes, and little use for finance management or control.

Retrieved from "https://userwiki.neosys.com/index.php?title=Using_NEOSYS_Agency_System&oldid=7155"