Municipal Software CUBIC Tips & Tricks

Our support team is back with more ways to help you get the most out of CUBIC. Watch this video or read through the post to learn more!

By: Adam Best

High Usage Notice: The CUBIC 15 Release allows for the creation of a High Usage Notice. To find the High Usage Notice go to Customers –High Usage Notice. Users will have the options of Book/Account Number Ranges, Customer Status, Service Types, Include Estimated Usage and Read Date Ranges. By entering the read date ranges, the user can search for high usage. On the same screen, the user can select which High Usage Notices they want to print. Once OK is pushed, a grid will appear with customers in the high usage range. The user can now select the customers who will receive the actual notice, or if the user would like more information they can view or edit the customer. A Usage Service graph will print, along with the 12 months of previous usage on the notice. To setup the High Usage Notice, the user will need to go to General > System Controls > Statement Information. On the Statement Information tab you will find a High Usage Notice Format button. On the High Usage Format screen, each service will have its own tab. Each tab has 8 lines of 132 characters available to fill in with user defined information.

Batch and Simple Batch Receipts Edit List: When printing the edit list for either Batch Receipts or Simple Batch Receipts, if the customer has the Shut off option selected, their payment will have an asterisk (*) to the left of the transaction type. There is also an option on both edit lists that a user can select “Only Print Customers Marked As Shut-Off”. When this option is selected, only shut-off customers with payments in Batch Receipts or Simple Batch Receipts will print on an Edit List Report. When this option is selected, the Transaction Fields will be disabled. The “Only Print Applied Deposit information” will be disabled as well.

A/R Reconciliation Report: The A/R Reconciliation Report in the CUBIC 15 Release now has 3 options. Those options are:

• Customers With Services With Only Positive Balances
• Customers With Services With Only Negative Balances
• Customers With Services With Both Positive And Negative Balances

The last option can be useful for finding customers with services both positive and negative, and which customer balances need to be fixed with a payment adjustment. When all 3 options are selected, all customers will appear on the report.

By Dean Eldridge

Work Orders: The Work Order Status Report now has an option to filter by Work Order Technician. A Work Order Technician can be assigned to a specific work order when the work order is being created. This option on the report would be useful in allowing the user to print based on a specific technician or allow the technician to print a list of work orders that they are specifically assigned

Write-Offs: There is a new option that can be setup in System Controls to automatically generate a Note when a Write-Off is posted for an account. From the Cash Receipts tab in System Controls, this option can be enabled as well as defining default language for the auto-generated note. Options are also available to create a Note Alert and include the Write-Off Amount on the note. A Note Type of “WRITE-OFF” will automatically be assigned when these notes are created.

Customer Services: For users with unmetered service accounts, there is a new Serial Number field available. Under Customer Maintenance, on the Service Information tab, when an unmetered service is added, there is a new field available to enter a 20 character identifier for this service. This could be utilized by users that bill trash collection. If a trash container is provided, this would allow the trash container used for that account to be tracked. When generating new accounts, using the Customer Copy option, a preference is available whether or not to copy this Serial Number information.

By Mike Emmerich

Color Code Services: You can now color code services based on their status. The colors are defined in System Controls by pressing the [Customer Service Status Color Preferences] button under the Preferencestab. You can change the color on each Service Status which include Active, Final, Inactive and Deleted. One use for this would be to have Inactive Services in red, so that it is clear which services are inactive.

Customer Labels: When printing Owner Address Labels, there is a new option “Suppress Duplicate Owner Labels”. When this box is checked, if the same owner address label has already been printed, the duplicate will not print. This is especially useful for the Annual Letters for Water Quality Reports that are sent out each year.

Service Balance Report: A Service Balance Report has been added to the system. The Service Balance Report is located on the General menu and there is also a link to it at the bottom of the General Task pane. This report shows the Current Balance for a customer’s services and the service balance is broken out to show how much of the balance is remaining in charges, taxes, and penalties. The report also has Rate Code, Service Abbreviation and Service Type summary options, so you can get totals for those outstanding balances. The Summary Options use the same default settings from System Controls that are used by the Trial Balances and A/R Reconciliation Report.

By John Milleck

Adjustments: The user has the ability to test the rate that is getting adjusted by pressing the Test Rate button located on the Add Adjustment Line screen in Rates Maintenance located under General. This is useful to calculate those charges that are being adjusted. When the Test Rate button is selected for a metered service, the user has the ability to key in the usage amount and select which size of meter to calculate. Once these fields are completed, the user will click the Calculate button to calculate all the fields applicable to that specific service. For unmetered services, the user would key in the amount of units before clicking the Calculate button.

Billing Journal: With the CUBIC 15.0 Release, the user has the ability to report on total charges that were taxable or non-taxable by selecting Tax Exempt or Non Tax Exempt check boxes in the Billing Journal options screen. The invoice file now marks charges as Tax Exempt or Non Tax Exempt depending on the status of the Customer or Service at the time the bill is entered. Please note that this new option will only work for bills entered after the system has been updated to the 15.0 Release.

Customer Maintenance: In the CUBIC 15.0 Release, customers can now be marked as “Shut-Off” by checking the box on the Customer Billing Information screen. Customers marked as Shut-Off who are active will still be billed. Automation features have been added to check and uncheck the Shut-Off option. There are three options available in the System Controls on the Work Orders tab when the Shut-Off Automation button at the bottom of the screen is selected. The first one is “Exclude Customers Marked as Shut-Off”. With this option, when Generating Shut-Off Delinquent Notices or Generating Shut-Off Work Orders, these customers will be skipped. The second option is “Automatically Mark Customer as Shut-Off when Shut-Off Work Order is Completed”. When this option is checked, once a Shut-Off Work Order is completed, it will automatically check the new Shut-Off check box for the customer. The third option is “Automatically Clear Customer Shut-Off Indicator when Reconnect Work Order is Completed”. Once a Reconnect Work Order is completed when this option is checked, the Shut-Off indicator will be unchecked (cleared)

---