Carr Engineering, Inc.

This section covers the creation of financial tools called "charge types" to bill users in your site for various things.

Setting up charge types (i.e., categories) for invoicing/finance management purposes in SkyManager is a two-step process. First, charges must be created for aircraft, instructors, merchandise, and so on. Then, those charges may be associated with one or more persons or objects. This way, when invoices are generated, the charges associated with a person or object are automatically generated appropriately.

You will need to create and configure various charge types in the system for any charges you would like to track/invoice for. For example, if you want to charge a rental fee for your N123456 aircraft, you will need a "Rental N123456" charge type. The most common charge types are instructor fees, membership dues, rental charges and item/inventory charges such as fuel.

This article discusses each of the following topics:

• Managing New and Existing Charge Types
• Applying Charge Types to Instructors and Aircraft
• Processing Member Dues

Managing New and Existing Charge Types

From the Home Page, click on Financial Tools under the Administrative Tools section on the right side of the page (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Click Financial Tools on the Home Screen to view, add or edit charge types.

This will take you to the Financial Tools page, which lists existing charge types (Figure 2). From this page, you can add new charge types or edit existing ones.

Figure 2. View, add and edit charge types in the system.

You will see several charge types already in the system by default, which include the Deposit parent category along with three sub-categories below it for Cash, Check and Credit Card. These sub-categories further define the various types of deposits you may take. Negative amounts are shown in red and parentheses, based on standard accounting practices for showing charges. Negative amounts will be charged to the individual, while positive numbers are charges to the organization.

You can now create a new charge type. To do so, click on the add link at the bottom of your existing list of charges. This will open the New Category page (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Create a new charge type.

The fields on this page are described below:

• Description: Name the charge type in this field.
• Parent Charge: Decide if the new charge type will be a stand-alone charge (meaning no similar charges will be created) or if we need to add it under an existing "parent" category so that it is listed as a sub-category below that parent. If the charge is unique (stand-alone), you will create it without entering anything in this field. If you would like to group the charge with other like charges, select the common Parent Charge category under which they will all exist as subgroups. For example, if entering rental fees for three aircraft, you might add them under a common Aircraft Rental category. If no parent category exists yet, you'll need to create one as a new, non-chargeable category.
• Chargeable: If the charge category is chargeable, meaning it should be invoiced with a dollar amount, check the checkbox. Typically, parent categories over a group of sub-categories are not chargeable. If left unchecked, no further configuration is necessary for the group. If checked, however, fields for dollar amount, units, tax percentage and inventory will appear (described below).
• Amount: If the charge is associated with a specific dollar amount, enter that here.
• Units: If the charge is measured in a specific unit of measurement, enter that here.
• Tax: If the charge should be taxed, enter the tax rate here as an integer between 1 and 100.
• Inventory Item: If the charge type is being created for use of a measurable inventory item, select "Yes"; otherwise, select "No." If "Yes" is selected, you will also need to define the average quantity you will have on hand for that inventory item as well as the general reorder quantity.

When finished, click the Save Category button. Your new charge type should appear in the list of charge categories in the Financial Tools page.

Here are some things to remember when creating charge types:

• Rental Fees: When creating a charge type for rental fees associated with an aircraft, the charge must be associated with the aircraft asset in order for the accounting function to work.
• Instructor Fees: To apply an instruction charge for a specific instructor, that charge type must be associated with the instructor for the charge to apply for a student working with that instructor. If you have an instructor with multiple rates, create a parent category for the instructor, with the various rates created as sub-categories below it.
• Member Dues: If your organization will charge membership dues, we recommend creating the dues with a parent category called “Dues” and sub-categories for the various levels of membership, unless your organization has only one level.
• Inventory: Inventory items may include anything from fuel to merchandise. Be sure to include a unit and dollar amount for these items if you want to charge members for them.

Figure 4 below shows examples of each of the above charge types.

Figure 4. Charge types may be made for aircraft rental fees, instructor fees and membership dues.

To edit an existing charge type, simply click the edit link beside it.

Applying Charge Types to Instructors and Aircraft 

Now that you have created your charges in SkyManager, they must be associated with either an instructor or aircraft within the system. 

Aircraft Rental/Fuel Fees

From the Home Page, click on System Configuration under Administrative Tools, then click on Aircraft. You will now see a list of all assets currently existing in your site (Figure 5).

For instructions on adding aircraft in the system, please refer to section 5 of this guide.

Figure 5. View and edit aircraft (assets) in the system.

To associate charges with an aircraft in this list, click on the edit link next to the aircraft. Scroll down until you see the Rental Charge field (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Apply rental and/or fuel charges to the aircraft to invoice them automatically when the aircraft is scheduled for flight.

From the drop-down provided, select a rental charge you created in the previous steps when building charge types. You can also select a charge type for fuel charges/surcharges or per-flight fee from this page. When finished, click Save Aircraft at the bottom of the page.

Now that you've associated one or more charge types with the aircraft, once it's scheduled for flight, the appropriate rental and/or fuel amounts will be charged.

Instructor Fees

From the Home Page, click on System Configuration under Administrative Tools, then click on Instructors. You will now see a list of all instructors currently assigned in your site (Figure 7). Click on the edit link beside the instructor you'd like to apply charges for.

For instructions on adding instructors in the system, please refer to section 6 of this guide.

Figure 7. Edit the instructor to apply a charge type.

The Instructor Charge page will appear (Figure 8). Select the charge type you created for that instructor in the previous steps. If you created several charge types for the instructor under a common, non-chargeable parent category (see John Smith example in Figure 4), selecting the parent category will provide the choice of any of the instructor's charge types upon check-in of a flight or ground instruction reservation assigned to that instructor. 

Figure 8. Apply a charge type to the instructor.

When finished, click Save Instructor.

Once you have associated a rental charge with an aircraft as well as flight instruction charges with an instructor, you can book a flight with that aircraft and instructor and automatically invoice against those charges. For example, after a one-flight with 30 minutes of ground instruction (pre- and post-flight time) is scheduled, the check-in screen will include options to enter those instructor charges (Figure 9). 

Figure 9. Post-flight check-in options include charges for instruction and inventory.

After clicking Complete Check In, the user is taken immediately to their account statement, which would show a one-hour aircraft rental charge, one-hour flight instruction charge and 30-minute ground instruction charge. The aircraft and instructor will both be named, and a total for the flight will be shown along with the account running balance. At that time, you may add any purchased inventory item (e.g., flight bag, log book, sectional chart, etc.), as long as charges for those items have been added with the Inventory Item field set to "Yes." To add an inventory item to the invoice, click on add to the left of the date (to the far left of the invoice number) (Figure 10).

Figure 10. Add inventory items to the invoice by clicking add. 

Processing Member Dues

Member dues (any monthly charges set up in advance that apply to members for the course of the month) may be processed from the same page automatically once charge types have been set up for dues and associated with user tags. Clicking the Process Dues button will automatically charge monthly dues and assess fines and finance charges for all members. Be sure to click this button only ONCE; otherwise, duplicate charges may be applied to users.

In addition, you can click Credit Card Transactions on the left side of the Navigation Bar to view any pending credit card transactions. If you wish to process credit cards through SkyManager, submit a ticket to request assistance in setting up your payment gateway.