General Information 
Receive Utility Bills
This task is used to receive Usage type AP Invoices (Utility Bills) that require more details on usage and may also require that Vendor Account Numbers are included on the check stub for the checks printed to these vendors. The tasks allows you to receive multiple Utility Bills for the selected vendor, which is especially helpful when you have a stack of phone bills to enter, for example.
After an AP Invoice has been received and coded, it will be displayed in the Verify Invoices To-Do List Activity, the Approve Invoices To-Do List Activity or the Export Invoices To-Do List Activity depending on how you have defined your Accounts Payable process flow at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Business Constants.
Vendors have been created with the Vendor Account Holders needed to receive this Utility Bill for.
Accounts Payable Detail General Information Receive Utility Bills
or
Accounts Payable Detail Invoice Receive Utility Bills
Find Vendor
The first step of the task is to select a Vendor you wish to receive the AP Invoice for.
Vendors are created at the Vendor Detail > Vendor Locations tab.
You don't select Vendor Account Holders (Vendor Detail > AP Vendors) until the Add Bill step, where you can add multiple bills for the selected Vendor.
Only Vendors that have Vendor Account Holders for communities and/or management companies that you have been authorized to see at the System Administration > Employees tab will be included in this list.
To further filter this list down enter any of the following search criteria:
Vendor Name - as you begin to type the Vendor Account Holder's name, the list will dynamically narrow down to all Vendor Account Holders that start with or contain the characters you have typed in.
For example, you can search for a telephone company and filter the list to all Vendor Names that contain the word telephone.
Community/Mgmt Co - select the Community or Management Company to see all Vendors for the entity you have selected.
If the Vendor that you are looking for is not in the list, you will need to navigate to the Vendor Detail > Vendor Locations tab using the Add New Vendor task to add the Vendor and then from the Vendor Detail > AP Vendors tab use the Add AP Vendor task to add the AP Vendor and its related Vendor Account Holders.
If the vendor in the list is authorized for several communities, you will see “<multiple>” in the Community/Mgmt Co column of the list.
Click the Clear link to clear out your search criteria.
Click Next after you have selected a Vendor.
Add Bill
Invoice # - from the Utility Bill being received.
This field is alphanumeric limited to a size of 27 characters.
When entering alpha characters, they will default to capital letters.
If you do not require Invoice #'s be entered at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Business Constants and you leave this field blank, Property Manager will generate a number for you automatically. The number generated will be "AUTO##" with ## increasing by one as each AP Invoice is received without an existing number.
If the Require Invoice # parameter is selected on Business Constants, you will be required to enter an Invoice # for each AP Invoice or Credit memo created at Accounts Payable Detail with the Receive Invoice, Receive Utility Bills, Receive Credit Memo and Receive Credit Memo for Selected Invoice tasks.
Please note that this parameter is not visible on Business Constants in the current version of Property Manager and is defaulted to being NOT selected. If you wish to require Invoice #'s for each AP Invoice, please contact Bostonpost Client Support at myMRI or contact a Client Support Analyst directly at (877) 579-8896 to have this parameter selected for you.
If you enter a duplicate Invoice Number for the selected vendor, you will receive an error when clicking Next or Finished to the task.
Select or enter the Received Date of the utility bill. This is the date you receive the utility bill in the mail.
Select or enter the Invoice Date of the utility bill. This date comes from the face of the utility bill being received into the system.
The Due Date will default based on the Payment Terms setup at the Vendor Detail > AP Vendors tab using the Add AP Vendor or Maintain AP Vendor task.
You can change the defaulted Due Date to today or any day in the future.
Enter the total Amount of the Utility Bill in the Amount field. The sum of all Line Items added must equal this amount.
Select a Note Type and enter a Note to be added to the utility bill.
This is the note for the entire invoice and won't be used for individual line items. Notes added in this task will show on the Accounts Payable Detail > Invoice tab in the Transactions data window as a Note Type transaction and in the Accounts Payable Detail > Invoice tab and in the Approve Invoices task.
Note Types include: Alerts, Discount Info/Terms, Information Change, Miscellaneous, Order Change or Vendor Comments.
Click the 
next to the Comments field to open up a popup box, which will allow you to see more of the note you are adding to the utility bill.
Select the Account # of the Vendor Account Holder (Vendor Detail > AP Vendors) you wish to receive the first Usage Line Item for.
The drop down lists the Account #, Community or Management Company Name and the Invoice Account Type for each Vendor Account Holder of the selected Vendor.
Click the next to the Account # drop down list to see more details on the Vendor Account Holders.
Depending on the Invoice Account Type used by the selected Vendor Account Holder which allow you to standardize what gets entered for a Usage Line Items for the type of bill being entered for commonly paid utility bills (i.e. - phone, oil, gas, etc.)., the following fields may require entry:
Start Date - enter the start date of the period covered by the utility bill being received. If this field is selected for the Invoice Account Type, you will only see the End Date field.
This field will auto populate based on the prior month Utility Bill entered for this Vendor Account Holder and will be 1 day after the last Utility Bill's End Date.
End Date - enter the ending date of the period covered by the utility bill being received.
This field will auto populate based on the prior month Utility Bill entered for this Vendor Account Holder and will be 1 month after the last Utility Bill's End Date.
Bill Month/Year - these fields will calculate based on the dates entered for the start and/or end dates entered above. You can modify as necessary.
This field will auto populate based on the prior month Utility Bill entered for this Vendor Account Holder and The will be 1 month and 1 year, respectively, after the last Utility Bill's Bill Month/Year.
Usage - enter the number of units charged
Unit Price - enter the price per unit
Amount - this amount will calculate for you based on Usage x Unit Price. If Usage and/or Unit Price is not required for the Invoice Account Type, you will need to enter the amount of the Usage Line Item here.
Please note that when you enter usage information (usage and unit price), you can enter the extended cost amount even though it is calculated for you. If do you enter the extended cost amount and it is different from what is calculated from the Usage and Unit Price, the amounts in Usage and Unit Price will be cleared. In other words you cannot have the entered amount not equal the calculated amount from the usage amounts.
If the total amount should/be different from the calculation, you can use the Base Charge functionality described below.
Base Charge - enter an amount to be included in the Usage Line Item that is not included in the Usage charge calculated/entered above.
Expense - the GL Account for the expense distribution will default to what is setup for the Vendor Account Holder, but can be modified when the default doesn't apply to the current AP Invoice being received.
If the Invoice Account doesn't have a default GL Account assigned, the GL Account will default to the one defined for the AP Vendor at Vendor Detail > AP Vendors.
The list of available GL Account Numbers will be limited to those of the Account Types Expense and Other Current Liability that have been set to "AP" at System Administration > Accounting Setup - GL Account Setup and also to the GL Accounts in the GL Chart assigned to the community or management company at System Administration > Accounting Setup - Export Information Setup.
Description - enter additional information to describe the Usage Line Item
If you need to add additional Usage or Miscellaneous Line Items to this Utility Bill click either the Add Usage Charge or Add Misc Charge to do so. Otherwise, skip to the Step 12.
When adding more Usage Line Items, fill out the Line Item Detail as above.
When adding Misc Line Items, you only need to enter the following:
Account Holder - select a Vendor Account Holder (limited to the Vendor Account Holders created for the selected community)
Please note, for BP Financials Customers, the Account Number for the selected Vendor Account Holder will be in the Reference field for the invoice when it is loaded to BP Financials and this field will print on the check printed paying this invoice.
Expense Code - the GL Account for the expense distribution will default to what is setup for the Vendor Account Holder, but can be modified when the default doesn't apply to the current AP Invoice being received.
If the Invoice Account doesn't have a default GL Account assigned, the GL Account will default to the one defined for the AP Vendor at Vendor Detail > AP Vendors.
The list of available GL Account Numbers will be limited to those of the Account Types Expense and Other Current Liability that have been set to "AP" at System Administration > Accounting Setup - GL Account Setup and also to the GL Accounts in the GL Chart assigned to the community or management company at System Administration > Accounting Setup - Export Information Setup.
If there are more than one Line Items already listed, when you select an Expense Code for the first one, you will be prompted to apply this Expense Code to the other Line Items that do not have an Expense Code already assigned to them.
Amount - enter the amount of the Misc Line Item.
As you update the Amount for each Line Item, the total adjusts accordingly. Before you can move onto the next step, the Total Amount Billed of the Line Items must equal the Total Amount of the AP Invoice entered above.
Description - enter additional information to describe the Misc Line Item.
If you have added any Line Items in error, click the Remove link with that Line Item highlighted.
Click Next to Add Attachments as described below OR click Save and Receive Another to complete the current Utility Bill without adding attachments to it and then receive another one without exiting the task OR click Finished to complete the current Utility Bill without adding attachments to it.
If you need the Account # to print on check stubs for line item of a Utility Bill, the Save and Receive Another button is way you should go. This in affect creates a separate AP Invoice for each Utility Bill while keeping the selected vendor in context.
Enter a new Invoice #, Amount and then select the appropriate Account # as in Step 9 above and fill out the Line Item Details as described in Step 10.
If the sum of the Line Items doesn't match the total amount, you will be asked if you wish to change the total amount. Click Yes to change the total amount or click No to go back and make changes to the line items.
If you had entered a duplicate Invoice Number for the selected vendor, you will receive an error. You can change the Invoice # without losing any of the information you have entered for the Utility Bill.
If you didn't select an expense code for any line item, you will receive a warning asking you if you would like to make corrections before continuing.
Attach Documents
If you have enabled Document Imaging for your database at System Administration > Maintain Lookup Tables - Business Constants (Attachments for AP Invoices can be set to be either Disabled, Allowed or Required), click the links to add a File or Scan attachment to your utility bill.
With this functionality, you can attach the scanned utility bill to the AP Invoice in Property Manager, for example.
If Document Imaging has not been enabled for your database or your Access Role (System Administration > Define Access) does not have access to this functionality, you will just click Next to go to the next step of the task.
Click here to for a description of the Manage Attachments step of this task.
Attachments added through this task will be available on the Accounts Payable Detail > General & Accounts Payable Detail > Invoice tabs to view and/or maintain.
Bostonpost Financials users have the ability to view scanned documents in Bostonpost Financials (i.e. - invoices) attached to an AP Invoice under the Accounts Payable Detail > General tab. Once the AP Invoice has been loaded to Bostonpost Financials, a link will be available that the user can click on to view the attachment without having to go back into Property Manager. Use of this functionality requires a custom field to be added to your Bostonpost Financials application. Please contact Bostonpost Client Support at myMRI or contact a Client Support Analyst directly at (877) 579-8896 for assistance.
Click Save and Receive Another to compete the current utility bill and then receive another utility bill without exiting the task or click Finished to complete the current Utility Bill.
If you need the Account # to print on check stubs for line item of a Utility Bill, the Save and Receive Another button is way you should go. This in affect creates a separate AP Invoice for each Utility Bill while keeping the selected vendor in context.
Enter a new Invoice #, Amount and then select the appropriate Account # as in Step 9 above and fill out the Line Item Details as described in Step 10.
Once you are done with your stack of Utility Bills, click Finished.
The each Utility Bill's Transaction Log will have the entry "Created".