Transaction Types

Every transaction must be one of the predefined Types. The type of the transaction determines where it appears on receipts, how it is handled for reports, and whether it's a debit or credit to the customer (for receipts and the customer's balance) and to the campground (for reports).

Charge

This is the standard transaction type for any purchase or other charge to the customer.  A Charge transaction can have a category (selected from the Transaction Category list you define), a quantity, a price for each, and the total amount (calculated by the software).  The description defaults to the category selected for convenience, but can be changed to be more specific.

Charges can also have a Discount Used, which is a selection from the discount types.  This is used for generating reports to show how much of the charges were based on each discount type.

Tax

This is similar to a Charge, but is only used for adding taxes to the statement.  Besides reporting purposes, it's separate from the Charge type so that taxes can be shown separately on receipts.  A Tax transaction will have a category (typically a special selection such as "sales tax" or "hotel tax"), and has quantity/each/total values (see below for a suggestion on these).  The description defaults to the same text as the category.

Discount

This is essentially a negative Charge, used for indicating the amount of discount separately from the charge, both for reporting purposes and for the customer's convenience on the receipt.  For instance, if the normal rate is $20.00 and the Good Sam rate is $19.00, you should enter a Charge of $20 and a Discount of $1.00 to get the same result.  That way there's no confusion of whether they received the discount rate, they can see exactly how much they saved, and you can generate reports showing how much each discount program is "costing" you.

Discount transactions can have their own category, or you can use the generic "Discount" category.  You can set the quantity and each price just like Charges – for instance, enter the number of days for Qty and the discount per day in Each.  The Discount Used field will be set appropriately (from the Pick List), and the description defaults to the Discount Used also.  Note that Discount transactions will be shown on receipts with a "Discount : " prefix in the description, unless the description already contains the word "Discount".

Payment

This is the general payment type, for a customer paying his bill.  It will have a Payment Method (cash, check, Visa, etc.).  The Qty is typically left blank, so it just has an each/total value, but a Qty can be entered for special payment types like Traveler's Checks if you prefer.  The category is predefined as "Payment" and cannot be changed, and the description defaults to the same as the Payment Method selected in the dialog, but can be changed to something more specific if desired.

Deposit

Note that this refers to "advance" deposits, i.e. payment before a stay, not to be confused with "security" deposits, e.g. payment kept for possible loss or damage.  Deposits are basically the same as payments, just separated for clarity on the receipts and for reporting purposes.  In addition, the program keeps track of a "unapplied" deposits as a deposit account balance.  Whenever a charge transaction is entered after a deposit, a separate Deposit Applied transaction will be inserted to show that this deposit has been applied and is now earned income.

Deposit Applied

This is an automatic transaction -- there is no way to add it manually.  It's added whenever a Deposit is "used", i.e. a charge has been added to a reservation that had a deposit.  These transactions show an "Each" amount, but they don't affect the customer's balance due (because the Deposit already does), and it won't appear on receipts.  The Total on the Transactions dialog will be blank to indicate that it doesn't figure in the balance due.  

Note that only the "charged" amount can be applied, so for instance if there was a $100 deposit followed by a $75 charge, only $75 of the deposit will be applied.  The other $25 is still available to be applied or transferred.  Also note that there may be negative deposits applied in cases where a transfer is done or a refund is issued, so that the total deposit applied is kept in balance (in terms of how it affects the total deposit account balance).

Payment Transfer and Deposit Transfer

Payment and Deposit transfers allow money to be moved from one customer or reservation to another.  In most respects this is identical to entering a negative payment in one place and a matching positive payment in another place.  For more information, see the section on Transferring Deposits and Payments.

Credit

Credit transactions are for miscellaneous credits toward an account.  This is most often used for coupons or promotions that aren't a monetary payment, but reduce the amount of monetary payment needed.  They are treated like a discount in most respects, as they have a Transaction Category but don't have a Payment Method.  One distinction from Discounts is that Credits are not automatically taxed like Discounts are.  The description should be used to describe the purpose of the credit (bad weather allowance, credit for helping with mowing, etc.), and the description will have a "Credit : " prefix on receipts.  Also note that credits are shown in a separate section on receipts, below the sub-total for charges and discounts (and taxes).

Refund

Refunds are essentially negative Payments. They have a Payment Type (how the refund was paid to the customer), and have "Refund" as the category.  The description defaults to the payment method but can be changed to show the reason for the refund.  You can just enter the amount in Each, or you can use Qty/Each to show more detail and have the total calculated (e.g. 3 days at $20/day).

Note that even though Refunds are negative payments, the value entered should be positive since it's subtracted from payments.  Also note that it won't allow you to enter refund unless there is a credit balance due to the customer.  If you're refunding something that has already been charged, you need to add negative charge transactions first (or a credit) to indicate the merchandise or services "returned", so there is a negative balance due.  Then add a refund transaction to represent money actually refunded to the customer.

Memo

This is not really a transaction, but just a note that will show up on the Transactions list and optionally printed on receipts.  You can add a memo any time you want to explain the reason for a charge, credit, refund, etc., and it will be saved like any other transaction.  Memos are not be printed on customer receipts by default, but you can make it printable by checking the option when you enter the memo.  While the memo descriptions can technically be any length, they should be kept short to avoid pushing the Each and Total columns over.  If necessary, just add multiple Memos.

If you need to change a memo from non-printable "Memo" to a printable "Print Memo" (or vice versa), click on the Category field for the memo.  A drop-down selection will let you change the memo type.

Expense

Expenses are never associated with reservations or customers.  They are individual entries for campground expenses.  You can set the category, payment method, description, reference, qty and amount each to whatever you like.  You can also enter detailed Notes (a better place to put long descriptions so that reports are formatted better).

Misc. Income

Misc. Income transactions, like Expenses, are never associated with reservations or customers.  They are meant to be individual entries for other campground income not recorded elsewhere, such as vending machine income, dump fees, etc.  You can set the category, payment (receipt) method, description, reference, qty and amount each to whatever you like.  You can also enter detailed Notes (a better place to put long descriptions so that reports are formatted better).

Deposit Adjusted, A/R Adjusted

These transactions are only used when applying an adjustment to the deposit balance or accounts receivable balance (running totals kept within the program).  They don't appear on most reports since they don't affect charges or receipts, and are only a factor in bookkeeping.