Function Options

(Accessed through Maintenance / Program Options / Functions.)

Customer toolbar icon invokes "Find Customer" instead of "Add New Customer" -- If you find that you often use the Find function after clicking the toolbar to add a new customer (a good practice to avoid duplicates), you can set this option so the Find Customer dialog opens immediately.  If the customer is not found, clicking "Cancel / Add New" on the Find dialog will take you back to Add New Customer so it can be added.

"Find Customer" defaults to showing all customers when not starting with a partial name -- If your customer database is small, you may decide that it's easier to just scroll through the complete list of customers rather than having to enter a name first.  You can enable this option so that the Find Customer list starts with all customers instead of being blank -- but be aware that this could be slow if your database is large.  Only the most important fields are shown initially to make it faster (name, city, state, and notes), but after making any filter changes the fields shown will change according to the filter type.  For instance if you do want to see all of the fields for all customers then you can check and then uncheck the Filter By box to refresh the list.

Cash-register toolbar icon invokes "Unbound Transactions" instead of general Transactions -- This is enabled by default so that the cash register icon is just used for counter sales, like a point-of-sale system.  If you don't do counter sales, then disable this option.  You can then either have it go directly to Reservation Transactions (see below), or to the generic Add a New Transaction dialog (which lets you first search for a customer or reservation).

P.O.S. Note: If the P.O.S. option is enabled, then this setting will show "Point of Sale" instead of "Unbound Transactions".  The Point of Sale dialog will be used instead of Unbound Transactions.

Cash-register toolbar icon invokes "Reservation Transactions" -- If you often need to enter transactions for reservations, enable this option so the cash register first opens the Find Reservation dialog, and then opens the New Transaction dialog for the selected reservation.  The "Unbound Transaction" option above must be disabled before this option can be selected.

Include a "Print Window Tag" button on the Transactions dialog -- This option adds a button to Transactions so that a window tag can be printed in a single click, rather than selecting it from the drop-down list each time.

Show a "Change Due" message when printing new receipts and change is due -- Enable this to show a pop-up message showing how much change is due.  This is shown immediately after the receipt is printed, so you can be making change while the receipt prints.  Note that it will only be shown if "new" payment or deposit transactions are made with an amount tendered entered.

Round "Change Due" to nearest 5 cents (when an amount for cash Tendered is entered) -- For countries like Canada where the penny is being phased out, you can select this option to show the proper rounded-to-the-nearest-nickel amount of change to give when a cash payment is entered and a "Tendered" amount is specified.  The rounded amount will also show on receipts, however this does not affect the recorded total for the transaction or the amount of payment received for the transaction.  Any discrepancies due to rounding will be minimal in the long run, and should be handled the same way as any other minor cash drawer imbalance.

Automatically set Paid-Thru date when a reservation is paid in full (skip the warning prompt) -- This saves the step of setting paid-through whenever a reservation is paid in full, on the Transactions dialog.  If this option is not selected, a warning prompt will be shown if it appears that the paid-thru date should be set, unless the warning prompt is disabled in the Prompts option.

Automatically Guarantee a reservation when a deposit is made (or transferred in) -- With this option set, a reservation will be changed from Pending (or Confirmed) to Guaranteed status automatically if a Deposit is added to a reservation, or if a deposit is transferred into the reservation.  This simply saves a couple steps, so you can go straight to the Transactions and enter the deposit instead of using the Guarantee function or checking the Guaranteed box on the Reservation Details.

Automatically set the site as 'Dirty' when a reservation is checked out -- Only available if the Site Dirty field is enabled, this will set the site "Dirty" flag after every check-out.

Do not set Scheduled sites as 'Dirty' -- If you use Scheduled sites (e.g. for hourly rentals or tours), setting this option will disable the automatic Dirty-on-checkout function for those. This also applies to manual functions that set multiple sites dirty at once, e.g. setting all checked-out sites dirty from the Departures tab.

Don't allow reservations to be made without a site assigned -- If you don't use the unassigned reservations functionality at all, then select this option to make sure no reservations are made without a site assignment.  (If this option is not selected, there is still the option in the Prompts Options section to show a warning if no site is assigned.)

Inquiry reservations with a site show on the Rack and block others -- This allows you to "pencil-in" reservations on a particular site by making it an Inquiry, effectively reserving that site and making it unavailable for other reservations, but not making it an "active" reservation (it won't show on Arrivals, On Site, etc. until you elevate its status to Pending or higher).  Without this option selected, Inquiry reservations won't show on the Rack or Map even if they have a site assigned, and won't block other reservations.

"Show Available Only" shows open & available sites plus... -- The options in this box allow you to fine-tune what is defined as "available" for the purpose of the "Available Only" check box on the Rack View, as described below.  Note however that this doesn't change whether a reservation can be made on the site immediately, since a reservation on the site will still block new reservations.  This allows you to consider the possibility of replacing a low-priority reservation with a higher priority reservation.

Off-season and special dates unavailable -- Set this option if you want to consider sites available even if the site's "season dates" or "special unavailable dates" indicate that it shouldn't be available.  This might be useful if you have sites that aren't normally used off-season, but you would use if necessary for an extra-large crowd.

Blocked reservation dates -- Set this option to include sites even if the dates are blocked by an existing reservation.  Since the purpose of reservation "blocking" is to indicate that the customer might stay longer than his initial reservation but isn't sure, this would let you know that a site might be available if the customer does decide to leave.  If that's the only "available" site for a new reservation, you could then ask the current customer to make a decision so you can book the new customer if possible.

Inquiry Reservations -- Set this option to include sites with Inquiry reservations, assuming the other option (above) is set to show Inquiries on the Rack.  If you're using the option above to include inquiries as a pencil-in feature, this will show that a site could be available depending on the outcome of the inquiry/penciled-in reservation.

Un-Confirmed reservations -- Set this option to show sites with pending reservations as still available unless the reservation is "Confirmed".  This is useful if you have a strict confirmation policy, so that you can cancel an unconfirmed reservation if a new customer needs the site and the confirmation is overdue.

Un-Guaranteed reservations -- Similar to Un-Confirmed above, set this to show sites as still being available as long as the customer has not "Guaranteed" a reservation (for instance with a credit card).