This document serves as a guide to help you get acquainted with the
FlexWare Club Management System. It covers the basic tasks
that
need to be performed in order to quickly begin using the system in a
working environment.
1.1.
Versions FlexWare is available in a few
different versions. This guide follows the latest version
now available, version 1.8. Most of the features
covered in this guide apply to all versions, however the steps to
perform certain tasks may vary. As a general rule, it is best to
be running the most current version of the software in order to have
access to the most features.
1.2.
Conventions Used
The following conventions are used throughout this guide to help you
understand what is being referred to.
Entry fields are indicated with italic
lettering. For example, the First
Name field would refer to the actual field where you would
enter a first name.
Menu items are show in the following way: [File]->[Change
Password...]. This would tell you to click on 'File' then on
'Change Password...'.
Finally, most window titles and specific terms are shown in 'quotes'.
Let's get right into it. At this point we assume that you have
the FlexWare Software (hereafter referred to as FlexWare) installation
program on a CD or you have downloaded it from one of the available
sources on the Internet. One such source is here.
2.1.
Installation
To install FlexWare you will need to
run the setup program. If you have a CD, insert it and
double-click the icon on the CD (there should only be one). If
you have downloaded the
installation, run it by double-clicking on the icon fro the downloaded
file. Follow the instructions on the installation program.
When it has completed the installation, you should have an icon for FlexWare
1.8 on your Desktop.
The first time you run the program, you will be prompted to enter your
license number. If you have not received you permanent license
yet, you can click the 'Demo' button to activate the 30 Day Demo
license. This will allow you to begin working with the program
until you obtain your permanent license.
Members are your
most important assets as club owners, and managing and tracking their
information may be your most important task. It is important to
know how to quickly find information about a member, and to know how to
properly maintain the member's account.
3.1.
Adding a Member
To add a member record to FlexWare, open the 'Edit
Member' window, click on the add button [screenshot
3.1a], and begin entering the member's
information.
When first adding a member, you will want to concentrate on these tabs
only: Personal, General, and Membership. Go ahead and add
a sample member (you could add yourself) at this point. We will
use this member record throughout this guide.
Begin by selecting a Member Number for the member. If
you are assigning keychain tags to your members, you will enter the
number on the back of the tag into the Member#
field.
Be sure to enter all of the digits in the number including any leading
zeros. For your sample member, just use '123'.
Note: Do not change the number
that was chosen for Card#.
The program automatically picks this number for you when you add a new
member. Despite the confusion regarding the names of the fields,
the keytag number always goes in the Member# field. The other
information is fairly self-explanatory. Once you have entered all
of the member's information, finish by clicking on the save button at
the top. Any time you wish to modify a part of a member's record,
simply click in the proper field, and make your change. However,
remember to click the save button after any change you make.
3.2.
Finding a Member
Finding a
particular member record is very easy. Click on the 'Find Member'
button on the toolbar, this will bring up a list of your members [screenshot
3.2a].
You can scroll up and down in the list or use the
search features at the bottom to locate the member. Once you have
found the member you wish to pull up, select it from the list and click
on the 'Open' button at the bottom.
In order to sell any products to your members, you will need to define
them in the system. There are two different types of products you
can define in FlexWare. First, a Standard product would define a
product that you would sell one time, for example, a tee shirt, a
bottle of water, or even a joining fee. Second, a MemberType
product would define a membership which will be paid for in
installments, probably monthly. We will go over creating both
types of products below.
Begin by opening the 'Product Maintenance' window,
[Edit]->[Products...].
4.1.
Creating a Standard Product
Again, a Standard product would define something that will be sold
once. You can add a new product by clicking the 'New Product'
button [screenshot
4.1a]. In the
screenshot example, you can see that we have filled out the General tab.
Item Number is a unique number
that must be assigned to the product. What numbering scheme you
use is up to you, however, it makes sense to leave gaps in between
numbers so that you can later add products anywhere in the list
(i.e. 100100, 100200, 100300, etc.).
You can see that Usage is set
to Standard. This is what defines this as a standard product.
Description is the name you
are giving to the product. This is what will show on the receipt
when you sell the product, so be as descriptive as possible (i.e.
XL Club Tee Shirt).
The last thing we need for our product is the Cost, located on the Price tab [screenshot 4.1b].
Enter the cost for
the product and click on the save button.
Go ahead and create a Standard product for your joining fee. We
will use this in a later section.
4.2.
Creating a Membership Product
Let's go ahead and add a MemberType product while
we're in here. Click on 'New Product' and fill in the General tab. To properly
define our membership, we need to select 'MemberType' for the Usage[screenshot 4.2a].
Go
ahead and define one of your memberships here. For example, if
you have a 12 month membership option, call this product 'One Year
Membership Special'. Again, fill in the
cost for the membership. This will be the amount that will be
paid each month for the membership (i.e. $39.00).
Because this is a MemberType product, we also need to fill in the Membership tab [screenshot
4.2b]. The Period
defines the term
for this membership. In the screenshot example, this is '12
Months', which would define a one year membership. Direct Debit must be checked
and the Payment Period must
be set to 'Monthly'.
Once you have defined the product, click the save button. You
should now see both of your products in the list at the top [screenshot
4.2c].
4.3.
POS Introduction
The Point of Sale (or POS)
screen can be accessed through the [Edit]->[POS...] menu item.
This section will give a brief introduction to this feature.
Let's begin by taking a look at the POS screen [screenshot 4.3a].
You can see that the product list is shown in the upper left
corner. We also have a keypad the the right. The receipt is
shown in the lower left corner, and a few other settings to the right.
The best way to understand how the POS works is to use it. In the
next section we will use the POS to sell the membership products we
have defined to a member.
Assigning a membership to a member is as simple as selling them a
membership product. Most clubs have a joining fee that is paid
when the member signs up. The member usually pays their first
month's dues at this time as well. Before you can sell a
membership, you must have the member entered into the system.
Let's use the sample member we created earlier and go through selling
the membership.
5.1.
Selling a Membership
We begin by opening the POS screen. The first thing we must do is
to select the member we are assigning the membership to. Use the
'Find Member' button to locate the member. You should see the
member's name and card number once the member is selected. Next
we begin by selling the membership that the member has applied
for. Double click the membership product that we defined
earlier. You should see the product on the receipt [screenshot
5.1a]. Next we will add the Joining Fee product
to the sale. Double click the joining fee product and you should
see it added to the receipt [screenshot 5.1b].
Now that we have both products on the receipt, we are ready to click
'Sub Total'. You should see the total for the sale displayed at
the top [screenshot
5.1c]. In the screenshot example, the total is
$118.00.
Now you must select the Payment Type.
This is the method that the member is going to use to pay for this
transaction. This
only applies to this sale. For example, if a member is going to
use your EFT service, but is going to pay for this (joining fee and 1st
month) with a credit card, select Credit Card.
Once you have selected the Payment
Type, click on the 'Total' button to complete the sale.
Because we are selling a MemberType product, the program will now ask
us when we want the next installment of the membership to be due [screenshot
5.1d]. Set the Due Date to the next payment date
and click the 'Save' button. You should then receive a message
about the member's record being updated.
5.2.
Payment Options
Now that we have sold the membership to the member, we need to specify
how they are going to pay for the installments. To do this we
open the member's record and go to the 'Banking' tab [screenshot 5.2a].
The most important field on this tab is the Account Type field. This
determines the payment method for the member. If they will be
paying via EFT, select 'Bank Account'. If they will pay via
credit card each month, choose Visa, Mastercard, etc. The other
fields are fairly self-explanatory. Fill in all of the
information about the member's chosen payment method and click save at
the top.
The first step in collecting your payments is to 'update' the members'
records. This procedure records the members' payments as paid,
and also moves their next due date forward. The update screen can
be accessed through [Edit]->[Direct Debtors]->[Update...] [screenshot
6.1a].
In the screenshot example, you can see that the Start and End dates are set to
'08/06/2004'. Set these dates to one of the due dates you
specified when selling the membership and click 'Test'. FlexWare looks
for anyone who is due on this date and displays them in the list at the
bottom. You should see the sample member in the list. Once
you click on 'Commit' the program will ask if you wish to update the
members' records, click 'Yes' and it should tell you how many records
it updated.
6.2. Transmitting
Payments to Processor
First we will look at transmitting your EFT payments for
processing. It should be noted that the EFT payments must be
transmitted at least one day before the due date. For example, if
you are
transmitting payments to be drawn on the 8th of March, you must have
them uploaded before the 8th (the 7th at the latest). This
differs from Credit Card payments which we will cover in the next
section.
6.2.1.
Transmitting
EFT Payments
To begin, open the
'Direct Debit Export' window under [Edit]->[Direct
Debtors]->[Export...] [screenshot
6.2a].
Under the Direct Debit Update
field you should see the date and time that you performed the update in
the last section. In the future, you will need to verify that
date and time match the update that you want to export. The Export Format field must be set to
'Comma Separated Values'.
Next you must specify where you want to save the file that contains the
payments. In the screenshot example, the file will be saved under
'C:\data\080604.csv'. This means I have a folder called 'data' on
my
hard disk, and I want the file saved in that folder with a name of
'080604.csv'. Where and what you name your file is up to
you.
However, it is recommended that you save it in an easily accessible
folder (i.e. My Documents), and that you name it uniquely
(i.e. using
the date as part of the name). You can use the 'Browse' button to
specify where to save it.
Once the filename is set, the last step is to check the payment types
that we want exported. Click on the 'Payment Types' tab and make
sure
ONLY 'Bank Account' is checked. Now we are ready to click on
'Perform
export'. You will
see a window asking which
fields to include in the
export. You need to make sure ALL of the
fields are checked, then
hit OK. It should then tell you how many
records were exported.
Finally we need to upload the file we have exported to the EFT
processing system. Begin by connecting to the Internet and open
your browser (if you are viewing this online, just click here).
Go to
https://www.freedomware.net/fdc2/.
Login using the ID and Password that you have obtained from
FreedomWare. Upon successful login you should see this page [screenshot
6.2b]. Under the File
to import field you will need to specify where your export file
is located (i.e. My Documents). You can use the 'Browse'
button to easily locate
it. Next you will need to select the FlexWare version you are using, this
should be 'FlexWare 1.8'. The last step is to specify the Due Date for these
transactions. This is the date that the payments will be drawn
from the members' accounts, so be very specific when you choose it.
Note: FreedomWare Data Center
processes EFT payments four on specific dates during a given
month.
These are: the 1st, the 8th, the 16th, and the 23rd. You should
be grouping your members into one of these four due dates.
However, there are cases where you will need to transmit one or two
payments outside of this schedule (i.e. returns from NSF, etc.).
Finally you are ready to click on 'Import'. This will upload your
export file to the EFT system. Several checks are performed on
the payments as they are received. If any of these checks fail,
you may see a report detailing what went wrong. However, if all
goes well, you should see a report showing the payments you have
submitted [screenshot
6.2c]. It is recommended that you print this
page for your records. Once you are done printing, click
'Continue' at the bottom. You will be taken back to the Main
Page, and you should see your draft under 'Pending Batches'.
You can now logout, or just close your browser window. 6.2.2. Transmitting
Credit Card Payments
Submitting your credit card payments is very similar to the EFT
method. Again, you will process your credit card payments on the
day they are actually due. The credit card transactions are
processed 'real-time' whereas the EFT payments are not.
To process your credit cards, make sure you have PC Charge Payment
Server running (this is indicated by a green dollar sign icon in your
system tray). Follow the steps for exporting the EFT payments as
described in the last section. The only difference here is that
you must select 'PC Charge Payment Server' for the Export Format. Because we
want to process only the credit card payments through PC Charge be sure
ONLY the credit card types are checked under 'Payment Types'.
Once you have done this, click on 'Perform Export'. This will
submit the payments through PC Charge.
You can now open PC Charge and run a daily report to verify that the
payments are 'Active'. You will still need to perform your 'End
of Day Settlement' within PC Charge to collect the funds.