Parks Setup

(Accessed through Maintenance / Park Setup / Parks.)

Usually you will have only one Park record.  This is used for the park info on the receipts and a couple other things.  This is also where your software license authorization code is stored, which is keyed to the park information.

One reason to have more than one park record would be to show different information on receipts for different sites -- for instance, you might want to print different Additional Notes on the receipts for your RV sites than for your cabins or tent sites.  You can add as many Park records as you like, using the same Authorization code for each, as long as they each have the same Name, City, State and Zip code.  (The Short Name of each record should be different, as described below, so that each park can be selected on the reports.)  If you need separate park records with a different name or address, contact Cottonwood Software for an additional park license.

You can print an entire Park record or a form with the Print button.  This opens the Form Selection dialog, which gives you the option to print a grid or a form.  The grid format prints a simple table with each field name and value, generally meant for reference purposes.  You can also choose to print any Form defined for this type of record, which allows you to easily access any custom form you've created for Parks.

The individual park fields are described below.

Park Name, Address, Phone Number, Email, etc.

The only critical information of these is the Park Name and address, which is used for authorization.  In addition, the Park Name is used in the Sites setup for selecting a park record for the site.

This information is also used for the printed reservation and transaction receipts.  The Park Name, address, all three of the phone numbers, E-mail, Web and Owners information will all be printed on the receipts in the park information box.

Short Name

This field must be filled in!  The Short Name is used for selection lists when selecting a park for each site, and selecting parks for filtering (if more that one park is defined).  This can be anything you want to use to identify the sites that will be grouped for this park, but should be about 10 characters or less for the best results.  It could be an abbreviation of the park name, or something generic like "Campground" or "Marina".

Check In and Check Out Times

The Check In and Check Out times will be shown on reservation receipts for the customer's reference.   If you don't want to show these on the receipt for any Sites in the database, then you need to disable these fields under Maintenance / Data Field Definitions / Park Fields.  If you want it hidden from receipts only for certain sites (e.g. storage units), you can use the "Hide check in/out times" option in Site Details for each site.  

The Check Out time is assumed to be the next morning, and this will be indicated on the receipts.  For instance if the "Last Night" is Friday, the check-out time is assumed to be on Saturday morning.  If this is not the case (e.g. for flea markets where they must leave that evening), then uncheck the box "Check out is the next morning".

Different Check In or Out Times

If some sites have different check in/out times, e.g. for Cabins vs. RV sites, then you need to create a separate Park record so you can divide the sites into two "parks" so that they can have different settings for the times.  Use "Add New" to add another Park record.  You'll need to make sure that the Park Name, Address, City, State and Zip fields, as well as the Auth code, are exactly the same for both Park records (or else the program will go back to demo mode).  You also need to use a different "Short name" for each one -- for instance "Mill RVs" and "Mill Cabins".  Now enter the desired check in/out times for each of your virtual parks.

Next, go through all of your Sites (through Site Setup, or right-click on the Rack and choose Site Details), and change the Park record selected for each Site appropriately.

Meter Wrap-around numbers

For each meter type, enter a number corresponding to the capacity of the meter readings.  This will usually be a 1 followed by the number of zeroes corresponding to how many digits the meter has -- for instance if a meter has 4 digits (0000 to 9999), enter 10000 as the wrap-around number (since it will go back to 0 instead of 10,000).  Do not enter commas with the number, just the digits.  These wrap-around numbers are used to properly calculate the meter charges when the meter goes from 9900 to 0100, for instance.

Note that the meter wrap-around settings will be used for each site that is selected to be associated with this park record (see Sites Setup).  Therefore if you happen to have two different types of meters, with different numbers of digits, you can accommodate that by creating a duplicate park record with a different meter wrap-around number.  The procedure is the same as for "Different Check In or Out Times" above.

Key Code

This is calculated by the software, and it can't be edited. (If you make changes to the park name or address, you may see the key code changing.)  It's important that you do not make any changes that would alter this without contacting Cottonwood Software for a new Authorization Code.  

Auth Code

This is your Authorization code for your software license. Keep this code written down in a safe place!

Without the proper code here, the software will be limited to either a number of days use or will not allow you to add sites to the database.  This code will be created by Cottonwood Software, based on your Park information and the license details (number of sites, workstations, and product options you have).  If you change this code, the program will check that it's a valid code and may report an error.  If the code is not valid, the software will revert to Demo mode, which is limited to 100 reservations.  Note that a valid authorization code must be entered for all Park records, otherwise it will revert to "demo" mode.

If you requested a full-function 30-day trial, you will be given a "trial period" code to enter. Once you purchase the full license, you will be given a new code to replace it, which will be entered here to upgrade the authorization levels.  You may also receive a new code if you purchase upgrades or other optional features.

Download updated code(s)  -- This button will check online for an updated code, e.g. after purchasing updates.  Normally you would not use this button -- just manually enter the code we send you and Save.  However if you forgot to enter it at the time you ordered, you can try this to see if there's a newer code for your license.

Notes

The Notes fields are used to add an Additional Notes section on the printed the Ticket Form of reservation and transaction receipts.  You can have up to 3 notes of any length (assuming they fit on the printed page), and each of these notes will appear in a separate "box" on the receipt (it will have a border around it to separate it from the other notes).  

Each note can be multiple lines, but is entered as one long line in the dialog field.  If you type a long note, it will automatically wrap to multiple lines as needed on the receipt.  But you can also control the formatting with the use of the "new line" escape sequence, \n.  This way you can insert blank lines and force multiple lines where needed to format the note.  

Here is a detailed example of a possible note field using multiple lines, which would be typed in one long string:

Please keep your campsite clean and free of clutter, for the enjoyment of all of our guests.\n\n   -- Avoid storing items under your camper.\n\n   -- Please no area mats or rugs, they kill \n        the grass for the next camper.\n\n   -- No outside clotheslines.\n\n   -- Clean up after your pets.  Baggies are \n        available at the office if you need them.

Notice the \n sequences and the spacing, and imagine that you were typing this on a typewriter using the carriage return each time you see a \n.  If you see \n\n, that means an extra blank line will be inserted.  The output on the printed receipt will look like this (including the width as it would be on the receipt):

Please keep your campsite clean and free of clutter, for

the enjoyment of all of our guests.

  -- Avoid storing items under your camper.

  -- Please no area mats or rugs, they kill

      the grass for the next camper

  -- No outside clotheslines.

  -- Clean up after your pets.  Baggies are

      available at the office if you need them.