Eclipse Customization For Billing

It’s that time of year again. School supplies are filling the aisles of every store, the news and advertisements are littered with back-to-school themes, backpack-toting kids are scurrying around on the sidewalks, and big orange buses are making their appearance in everyone’s neighborhood. But most of all, back to school time means the return of a more typical, regimented way of life. It’s time to put vacations and relaxation aside, and focus on forging ahead. For many of our clients, we think that should mean taking a serious look at their billing processes. 

Over the past several months, we’ve had the opportunity to help a handful of clients with this important aspect of their operation; and, we feel it warrants some discussion amongst the Eclipse software community. We’ve found that, in some cases, billing has evolved into an “as long as it’s getting done, I don’t need to worry about it” kind of a task. What many of them don’t realize is that utilizing Eclipse customization to create a structured, more automated billing process can streamline this essential activity. In turn, you can save time, make day-to-day work easier, and potentially put money in your pocket faster. 

Let us ask you this: If you could save three to four hours per day, per person that’s engaged with billing, would you be intrigued? Our guess is that you would. We recently discovered that one of our long-term clients was waiting for a paper copy of every ticket to show up before they would bill anything. Sometimes, this meant waiting days to figure out what happened to one or two out of hundreds of tickets. 

Once we realized this, we convinced them to let us spend a couple of consulting hours; and, we changed their Eclipse software settings to reflect the standard billing process that we recommend. Our focus is on signatures and manifests rather than paper tickets or manual processes. Within a few days, our client was saving, per day, more time than the one-time investment we made to fix it. 

Here’s a pop quiz for the day (don’t you hate it when teachers do that?). It’s just eight quick questions. 

1. Do you have the Ship Vias set up for Print Status of Q? Yes/No 
2. How about for M? Yes/No 
3. Do you have different Ship Vias set up to follow different paths? Yes/No 
4. Do you have the control files for print statuses set up to be efficient within the Invoice Preview Queue? Yes/No 
5. Are you changing the print statuses one by one? Yes/No
6. Are pushing tickets day after day because you are waiting on a paper ticket? Yes/No 
7. Are you billing tickets out several days beyond when the material was shipped? Yes/No
8. And lastly, are you dependent on the paper ticket to come from the warehouse or the counter to actually finish the billing process? Yes/No

If you didn’t get a passing grade, it could be time for you to go back to school: Zerion’s School of Eclipse Billing. Then you have some options and some items that should be addressed in your billing cycle. Those pesky paper tickets aren’t necessarily needed in order to do your billing. You see, if you set up your control files correctly, set up ship vias correctly, and use some features inside Eclipse software like they were meant to be, then billing can become an efficient machine within your organization.  You can ship product today and bill it today.  In some cases, that may mean a faster paid bill; and, at minimum, it will result in a more efficient operation. If you’re interested in talking with us more about Eclipse customization, schedule a call with a specialist today!