Revision as of 07:57, 24 November 2014

The 'Business Configuration' module is the second of three mandatory modules used within webBooks. The function of this module is to define the various information that pertains to the business such as its name, addresses, operating hours, and more. Like the 'System Configuration' module, you most likely will not return to this extension very often.

Tabs

Each module will contain several tabs that help group the various types of associated information. Below we will cover the details of each one currently available in the latest release of the module.

?

This tab is found in each module as the way to access helpful documentation and, when clicked, will load this wiki page for the module. Of course, you can always go directly to our wiki and read through the entire software documentation.

General

Also found in most of the available extensions, this tab provides the general information associated with the module. Below you will find the details of each field available on the form.

• Business name As the name suggests, this is the name of the business.

• (coming soon) These options will become active within the next version or two.

• Type This specifies the type of business your organization is.

• Founded There are two values on this line that specify when and where the company was founded.

• Fiscal yr & Time zone There are two values on this line as well. The first value should be the date that corresponds to the first day of the fiscal year for the organization. The second should be the time zone in which the organization currently resides. It is important to note that currently only the time zones of the globe containing English speaking countries are available for selection due to that being the only language supported at the moment. As other languages become available, this list will expand.

NOTE: if you are interested in translating webBooks into another language, please contact our staff.

• Operating hours This should be self-explanatory - the official hours of business operation.

• Phone & Fascimile Another set of fields that should be easy to understand, these values define the main phone and fax numbers of the business.

• Website Every business has an Internet presence today, and this is where you would enter that web address. Please note, you will need to include the 'http[s]://' prefix!

• Main address This address should correspond to the physical address where the business resides. If you have a small, home operated business, then this value would be your home address. On the other hand, if you have several locations, this value should be the mailing address of your headquarters.

• Billing address Some companies are large enough to have several different mailing addresses for various departments. This address should define where your bills should be sent. If you have a small, home operated business, then you can click the 'Same as Main' button to have the value from the 'Main Address' copied here.

• Shipping address Again, if you are a larger business and you have a specific address where your shipping and receiving take place, enter that address here. If you are a SOHO, then you can click the 'Same as Main' button once again.

• FEIN The Federal government is responsible for giving you your Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) after you apply for one. All business types with the exception of a 'sole proprietorship' are required to have this number. Instead those businesses can use the owner's social security number, in its place. However, there are circumstances where a sole proprietorship will be required the use an FEIN too so do your research beforehand.

• Sales tax There are two options on this line with the first one being the sales tax number for your organization. The second value contains the sales tax rate that your business will be required to charge on products (and possibly your services).

• Unemployment tax Just like the 'Sales tax', there are two values here that correspond to the unemployment number the Federal government has provided to you and the accompanying tax rate.

• Use BBN & Merchant The BBN is a new service of ours that will be coming online toward the end of Q4 2014 or Q1 2015 and will offer webBooks users the ability to see profiles and reviews of business and residential customers so you can determine if you would like to take the job or not. It is important to note that this is an all or nothing option. If you opt-in, then you get access to the customer information, but some of your webBooks information is sent to that network. If you opt-out, then none of your webBooks data is shared, but you also do not have any access to the customer data.

The merchant value defines which payment processor you would like to use to conduct credit card and other electronic payment options. Currently we only have two options (Paypal and Google checkout), but any other processors are welcome to work with us to get them added in as well.

• Merchant ID This is the unique identification that your organization uses when working with your selected merchant (see prior bullet).

• Pay schedule There are two values here that specify when your payroll starts. If you are a new company, then you will need to select the first day of the first month that your payroll will begin. If you are an existing company, then you will need to select the first day of the current month when your next payroll will be processed.

• Departments webBooks was designed to be a business framework since all companies are not structured the same. As a result, the software allows you to completely define the organizational layout of your company. This value should correspond to all the different departments that are currently used in your business. For instance, you may want to have a billing department, a human resources department, an IT department, etc. Of course if you are a small company you will probably end up with a small list here that mainly deals with what your business does. For instance, if you are a small plumbing company with the owner being the only employee, you could define a single department called 'plumber'.

• Positions This section expands upon the 'Departments' by allowing you to define each position within each department you created above and has several values associated with it. The first value is the name of the position you want to create. The next value contains a list of all the departments that you created so you need to select the one that will contain the position you are creating. The following line defines two values, the job type and payment terms, which are self-explanatory. The next line deserves more attention.

The first value is listed as the 'Base Pay' and its value depends on which payment term you selected from the line above. If you selected 'hourly', then the base pay value needs to be the hourly rate of payment. If either 'salary' option is selected, then this value needs to be the annual income for the position. If 'commission' is selected, then you can enter '0' for this value. 'Commission + base' means that the position gets commission plus a base salary so you will need to enter the annual salary for this value. 'By the job' and 'By the piece' need to have the 'per instance' payment defined here.

Following the 'Base Pay' value, is the 'OT Rate' textbox. This value defines the overtime rate that this position should receive. For example, if you enter '1.5' as the value here then the overtime rate is one and half times their normal hourly pay (which is calculated by webBooks no matter which payment terms you selected).

The final value on this line is the 'COLA' textbox and it specifies the cost of living increase that should be given to the position at the start of every new year.

The last line of fields has four values. The first and second define the amount of personal and sick leave the position receives at the end of every pay period. For example, if the 'Pay schedule' was set to 'monthly' and the values entered are 1.3 and 0.75, then the employee would get 1.3 days of personal leave and 0.75 days of sick leave at the end of each pay period.

The final two values are reimbursement values that correspond to mileage and travel. The mileage value needs to be the amount of reimbursement that you will pay per mile traveled. The travel value needs to define the daily per diem that is given to this position for travel.

• Freight accounts This section specifies the freight accounts that are used by the company. If your organization does not have any accounts with freight companies, but instead handles shipping by walk-ins, then you can leave this section blank.

• Bank accounts As the name suggests, this section defines the business bank accounts. It is important to note that the third line defines the check type and INITIAL check number that will be used for printing. The check type lets webBooks know which template to use when printing checks from your office instead of using pre-printed checks from your bank. There are two additional values in the listbox that can be used as well - hand written and electronic. The former relieves webBooks from processing outbound checks whereas the latter states that all money movement will be using ACH transfers.

• Credit cards Another self-explanatory section, all the credit cards for the company can be entered here.

Locations

This tab defines the additional locations of the business. If your business is structured so that it can have franchised locations, you can optionally add those locations in as well.

• Additional Locations This listbox contains all the saved locations that you have created. By default none are loaded when the module is opened, but upon selecting a value from the list, all the page information will be populated.

• Descriptive name As the name suggests, this textbox defines the name of the location and can be anything you want. For example, you may enter something like 'Jacksonville store', 'Store 3514', etc.

• (coming soon) These options will become active within the next version or two.

• Commerce URI Unlike ALL other business management software, webBooks enables you to automate as much as possible with those that you conduct business with that also use webBooks. For example, if you have a service provider that also uses webBooks and the two are setup using the 'Commerce URI' and 'Commerce SID', when they invoice you, there is no reason for them to mail, email, or even verbally tell you! Once their invoice is posted, their webBooks will communicate with yours and automatically exchange the necessary information!

It is important to note that the value here should contain the publicly accessible URI so that companies outside your own can communicate with your instance of webBooks. Once you have supplied a value here and for the 'Commerce SID' below, you can click the 'Send' button to have the software email the desired recipient both pieces of your commerce information. This step is not necessary, but was included to help two parties pair their software.

• Commerce SID Used in conjunction with the 'Commerce URI', this value is a dynamic, single-use string that ensures communication ONLY with the desired target. Since it is a single-use string, you can setup the initial value to be anything you want. For example, you could set the initial value to 'Hello World' and after the webBooks pairing has taken place, you should NEVER adjust this value again (since it would signal an alert and stop communication between the two webBooks immediately)!

After entering the value for the 'Commerce URI' and the 'Commerce SID', only ONE of the two parties that are pairing with one another should click the 'Pair' button. For more information on pairing, see the 'Common Tasks' section below.

• Main Phone & Fax Another set of fields that should be easy to understand, these values define the main phone and fax numbers of the additional location.

• Website Sometimes a business wants to segregate their locations from their main business (e.g. franchises). In those instances, each location may have their own website too. For example, car dealerships follow this mentality and would have something like davescarlot.com and mattscarlot.com, even though both dealerships sell the same cars. Please note, you will need to include the 'http[s]://' prefix!

• Main address This address should correspond to the physical address where the additional location resides.

• Time zone This value should correspond to the time zone in which the additional location currently resides.

• Operating hours This should be self-explanatory - the official hours of the additional location operation.

• Founded There are two values here that specifies when and where the additional location was founded.

• Status Another self-explanatory field, this is used to identify the status of the additional location.

• Sales tax Since the locations of additional offices can span beyond just a city or state, these fields allow you to define the sales tax number and rate for the location.

• Contacts This list contains various information on the saved contacts associated with the selected additional location.

• Freight accounts This section specifies the freight accounts that are used by the additional location. If the location does not have any accounts with freight companies, but instead handles shipping by walk-ins, then you can leave this section blank.

• Bank accounts As the name suggests, this section defines the additional location bank accounts.

Vendors

Inevitably your company will have to do business with other organizations. This tab and the 'Providers' tab (see next bullet) allow you to store and categorize those entities. The difference between a vendor and a service provider is basically where the former is someone that you buy products for use or resale (e.g. Dell) and the latter is someone that provides your company a service (e.g. Google).

• Vendors This listbox contains all the saved vendors that you have created. By default none are loaded when the module is opened, but upon selecting a value from the list, all the page information will be populated.

• Descriptive name As the name suggests, this textbox defines the name of the vendor and can be anything you want. For example, you may enter something like 'Orlando Walmart', 'Walmart store #3514', etc.

• (coming soon) These options will become active within the next version or two.

• Commerce URI Unlike ALL other business management software, webBooks enables you to automate as much as possible with those that you conduct business with that also use webBooks. For example, if you have a service provider that also uses webBooks and the two are setup using the 'Commerce URI' and 'Commerce SID', when they invoice you, there is no reason for them to mail, email, or even verbally tell you! Once their invoice is posted, their webBooks will communicate with yours and automatically exchange the necessary information!

It is important to note that the value here should contain the publicly accessible URI so that companies outside your own can communicate with your instance of webBooks. Once you have supplied a value here and for the 'Commerce SID' below, you can click the 'Send' button to have the software email the desired recipient both pieces of your commerce information. This step is not necessary, but was included to help two parties pair their software.

• Commerce SID Used in conjunction with the 'Commerce URI', this value is a dynamic, single-use string that ensures communication ONLY with the desired target. Since it is a single-use string, you can setup the initial value to be anything you want. For example, you could set the initial value to 'Hello World' and after the webBooks pairing has taken place, you should NEVER adjust this value again (since it would signal an alert and stop communication between the two webBooks immediately)!

After entering the value for the 'Commerce URI' and the 'Commerce SID', only ONE of the two parties that are pairing with one another should click the 'Pair' button. For more information on pairing, see the 'Common Tasks' section below.

• Main Phone & Fax Another set of fields that should be easy to understand, these values define the main phone and fax numbers of the vendor.

• Website This should be self-explanatory - the website of the vendor.

• Main address This address should correspond to the physical address where the vendor resides.

• Time zone This value should correspond to the time zone in which the vendor currently resides.

• Operating hours This should be self-explanatory - the official hours that the vendor operates.

• Founded There are two values here that specifies when and where the vendor was founded.

• Merchant The merchant value defines which payment processor that is currently used by the vendor to conduct credit card and other electronic payment options. Currently we only have two options (Paypal and Google checkout), but any other processors are welcomed to work with us to get them added in as well.

• Merchant ID This is the unique identification that the vendor uses when working with their selected merchant (see prior bullet).

• Contacts This list contains various information on the saved contacts associated with the selected vendor.

• Freight accounts This section specifies the freight accounts that are used by the vendor. If the vendor does not have any accounts with freight companies, but instead handles shipping by walk-ins, then you can leave this section blank.

• Bank accounts As the name suggests, this section defines the vendor bank accounts.

Providers

This tab contains the same layout as found in the 'Vendors' tab, however, this tab deals with all the service providers that your organization deals with. To see the details of these fields, please refer to the 'Vendors' section above.

Data

Also found in many of the modules in webBooks, this page allows you to upload various data that you feel is important (or necessary) to keep on file for a particular record (in this case there is only one business record). You will see several default items that you can use, but you also have the ability to dynamically add any number of additional fields by clicking the 'Add new Entry' button. This gives you a way to name and select each added entry.

There are two different ways that you can upload your files. The first way is by simply clicking on the upload box itself. Please note that if you are using this way, you can click the checkbox in the lower right-hand corner to select multiple files at once. Contrarily, you can also use a file manager to drag-n-drop file(s) onto the upload box. Either way will create an icon (with progress meter) for every file you are currently uploading. After you have uploaded at least one file, you will be able to select the file from any of the listbox entries. And after performing those steps, click the associated 'Update' button.

You may notice two additional buttons next to the 'Update' buttons. These remove the entry and encrypt the file respectively. Currently the encryption button is disabled as this feature will come online in a future version.

Buttons

The buttons located in the header of each form will be covered below (see the respective sections above for inline buttons).

Save (General)

The only button available in the header of the 'General' tab, click this button once you have filled out all available fields to save your configuration. It is important to note that this ONLY saves information listed on this tab - no others!

Common Tasks

The below sections cover several common tasks that a user may need to perform at some point in their interaction with the software. These will be expanded as time elapses.

How to Pair webBooks

In order to take advantage of several features found only in webBooks, you must pair your software with another organization. To accomplish this task takes only a few steps. First both parties will need to go into their respective module containing the others account. For example, if you are the vendor, then you would want to go into the 'Customer Accounts' module (since that's who you will be pairing with). If you are the customer, you would need to go into the 'Business Configuration' module under the correct tab (Vendors or Providers) since that's who you will be pairing with. And finally, if you are pairing with an Additional Location, then both parties will also need to go into the 'Business Configuration' module under the 'Location' tab.

Once in the appropriate module with the correct account record loaded, both sides will need to enter the commerce information of the other party in the 'Commerce URI' and 'Commerce SID' fields. To help with this step, you will notice a 'Send' button next to the 'Commerce URI' field which will send an email containing your information to the desired recipient via their email address. It is important to note that the initial 'Commerce SID' value can be anything as long as it matches on both ends. For example, both parties can put in 'hello world' or even the letter 'a', anything that matches in both instances of webBooks. After a successful pairing, this will be replaced with a single use, auto-generated string to help prevent malicious activity.

After both parties have entered the commerce information of the other party and saved the record, only ONE of the parties needs to click the 'Pair' button next to the 'Commerce SID' field. If you receive any type of failure message, double check that the information is entered correctly and try again. Please keep in mind that both commerce fields are case sensitive so make sure capital letters on one end are capital letters on the other.