The Campground Master software was designed to simplify the task of reservation management for any campground or RV resort. It can be extended to include rental cabins, park models and other rooms as needed. In fact it can be used to keep track of anything for which you need to make reservations. It was designed to be fast and easy to use for both large and small campgrounds, while supporting all of the features expected in a reservation management system. It will make the transition from paper-based reservations to a computerized system as quick and painless as possible.

In addition to keeping track of reservations (including the current and past status of all rental sites), the software keeps a detailed customer database and a complete log of all financial transactions for each customer and rental site. The information can be used to generate helpful financial reports and occupancy reports, show marketing results (where your customers come from), and more.

Many aspects of the software are user-definable, and everything can be set up by the end user through the program’s simple menu interface. No knowledge of programming is necessary, although a familiarity with the Windows operating system and basic software use is recommended. This manual covers every function of the software, including the maintenance functions used for setting up the database for your particular campground.

In most cases, however, you will want to have Cottonwood Software or one of our representatives set up the initial database for you, so you can get started using the software in a short time with minimal training. If necessary, we can customize the software to handle special functions or create special reports as needed.

All rights are reserved. No part of this manual or programs may be copied, sold, loaned, translated or reduced to any electronic medium, in whole or part, without the prior written permission of Cottonwood Software.

The Campground Master software is the property of Cottonwood Software and is only available for use under license. The license is valid upon receipt of payment and proper registration information. Campground Master has been thoroughly tested and designed to be fault-free. However, Cottonwood Software cannot be held responsible for any losses arising from the use of the software, and gives no guarantee as to the fitness of the software for a particular purpose. It is a condition of the license that the purchaser accepts all such risks; acceptance will be assumed when purchase is made or the license granted. The software is designed to operate on most modern PCs using Microsoft Windows 95 or later 32-bit operating systems.

Campground Master is designed to operate on any PC that can support Windows 95 or later. Generally any computer manufactured after 1996 will work, however following the recommendations below will allow for smoother operating and better functionality (for instance, more features are available when 800x600 or better screen resolution is used).

Requirements:

Intel 80386 or better processor, or equivalent (Pentium at 200MHz or better is recommended)

Microsoft Windows 95, NT 4 or later 32-bit operating system.

16MB RAM or more (256MB recommended for 95/98/ME, 512MB for NT/XP)

640x480 VGA 8-bit graphics (800x600 with 16-bit graphics recommended)

5MB free hard disk space (100MB or more recommended for continued use as the database grows)

A 2-button mouse

If you have the software on CD-ROM it is basically self-installing. Simply insert the CD-ROM and answer the prompts as they appear. If installation does not start automatically, follow this procedure:

1. Insert the CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.

2. From the Windows Start menu, select Run…

3. Type d:\setup in the edit box, where "d:\" is your CD-ROM drive letter.

4. Press Enter.

If you have obtained the software in an electronic (e.g. a download from the Internet), then simply execute the file to start the installation (double-click on its icon in Windows Explorer).

The installation program should start and ask you to make confirmations. Just click the Next button on each prompt to continue, and the software will install in the typical way most users need.

When installing the software, you will have the option to have Campground Master start up automatically when you start your computer. In addition, an icon will be placed on the Windows desktop, so you can start or restart the software any time by double-clicking the icon. (For those who have trouble with double-clicking the mouse, you can also click an icon once and then press the Enter key to start the program.)

Note: You may see two icons for the program, in which case one of them will be labeled "Demo" or "Sample Database". This icon can be used to start the software with the sample database, which can be useful for experimenting. Once the software is in full use, this icon should be deleted to avoid confusion.

Once the program starts, you will be asked to Log In with an Operator Name and Password. This is necessary to access any of the functions other than opening a database. The software initially has one operator with administrative access (able to do everything), so if you have not been given another user name you can log in with the operator name "Administrator" and the password "Password". (Type them without the quotes.) Once your system is set up, these should be changed for security purposes. This is covered in detail later.

To log in, just follow these steps:

1. Click the Log In button on the toolbar (the key icon) or click on Log In/Out on the main menu.

2. Type your login name. Don’t worry about whether to use capital letters or not, it doesn’t matter.

3. Press the Enter key (or Tab key) to move to the Password field.

4. Type your password. Again, don’t worry about capitals. Note that you won’t be able to see the letters

you type – they will all be shown as asterisks (*). This is for security. If you make a mistake, it’s

best to back up to the beginning with the Backspace key and start over.

5. Press the Enter key (or click on the Log In button with the mouse).

You should now be logged in. If you get an error message, you can go back and try again.

Once you are logged in, you should see more of the toolbar icons enabled (in color), and you can click on the tabs (Arrivals, Departures, etc.) to change views. The number of things enabled will depend on your access level.

If you are new to using this software and do not have someone available to train you, then you will probably want to review the illustrated Quick-Start guide (which is separate from this manual). The Quick-Start guide takes you through some of the most common functions of the software using a sample database. While it’s not a substitute for complete training or for reading this manual, it provides a good introduction to how the software works and what it looks like.

When you purchase Campground Master, you are entitled to free support via E-mail, or phone support at hourly rates (phone support is free for the first 3 months). If you are just trying out the software, feel free to contact is with any questions and for licensing details. You can contact Cottonwood Software at:

E-mail: support@campground-master.com

Web: http://www.campground-master.com

Phone: 1 (877) 414-8384 (Voice-mail, we will call you back)

1 (913) 522-0717 (Cell phone, for urgent support or order inquiries only please)

Post: Cottonwood Software

231 Rainbow Dr., #13166

Livingston, TX 77399-2031

The information in this manual varies from the very basic to the highly complex. If you are not comfortable with using Windows software, you should start by going through the Quick Start guide with the software, and then read the Terminology and Helpful Hints sections thoroughly before proceeding. You may also want to skip the Setting Up… and Program Options… sections and start at The Main Program Window section for more basic program information.

If you are a seasoned Windows user, you can probably skim these sections and dig right in to the Setting Up Your Campground Database section. The Quick Start guide is still recommended as a quick introduction to how the software works, however.

The sections of this manual have been generally organized in order from the most basic to the most complex, so that you can get started quickly by learning the most common functions of the software and gradually explore in more depth as needed. Likewise, topics within a section are arranged this way to provide a natural progression into the details of the customer database, for instance. Hopefully every step will be an easy one, and you will soon be an expert.

The exceptions to this easy-to-complex order are the Setting Up Your Campground Database and the Program Options and Settings sections, which come first. These have been placed before the other sections simply because setup must be done before you can use the software to make reservations. Even so, those section are more of an overview of what is needed to do the setup, since in many cases you won’t be doing the setup anyway (assuming you have someone else to do the setup). Whoever actually does the setup will need to refer to the Maintenance sections which appear later, so you might want to read the setup sections anyway to gain a better understanding of how things are put together. This will help you understand why things look the way they do, and why the software might look or operate slightly different on your computer than the examples given here.

It is highly recommended that you have the software running on your computer and actually use it as you read this manual. You can then experiment with the functions as they are described. This is the fastest way to learn the software. Once you actually do it yourself, you will remember it much better than just having read about it.

WARNING - You will probably not want to use the real database for experimenting – either use the sample database that comes with the software, or make sure you have a backup before making any changes, and know how to do a restore from the backup once you are finished experimenting.

This manual assumes that you are familiar with general computer and Windows terminology, such as keyboard, mouse, window, button, menu, and so forth. Here are a few terms specific to the Campground Master software that are used extensively in the manual.

Tabs – Besides the Tab key on the keyboard, "Tabs" refers to the row of buttons on the main Campground Master screen that simulate section tabs in a notebook or day-planner. They bear the words "Rack", "Arrivals", "Departures", etc., and are used to change to different views, or dynamic interactive reports (for example, click on the "Payments Due" tab to see the Payments Due view).

Views or Tab Views– Officially known as Dynamic Interactive Reports in Campground Master, the different sets of data that appear on the main screen corresponding to the Tabs (see above) are called Views throughout the manual, for simplicity. For example, the Rack View is the primary screen with the reservation "rack" dynamic interactive report.

Grids and Cells – Each of the Views consist primarily of a Grid with data Cells. In other words, a grid consists of rows and columns of information, and a cell is any one of the row/column positions. While some data cells may be different sizes to accommodate the data, any structure with rows and columns is considered a grid. These will also appear on some dialogs and report screens. A grid is usually easy to identify since the grid lines are visible, but the lines can be turned off on some views if preferred.

Dialog – This is a general Windows term, but not commonly used except by programmers. A dialog is any of the pop-up windows that appear to alert the user or ask for input, such as an "Are You Sure" prompt or a customer entry form.

Prompt – This is a more specific term for a simple dialog that has a message or a question to be answered, and usually a few buttons such as OK, Cancel, Yes, or No. These are usually warnings that the user should read carefully before continuing.

Right-click – This is a term for clicking the right mouse button (instead of the left button which is more commonly used).

Double-click – This means click the left mouse button twice in quick succession. It's important to not move the mouse at all between the clicks, or else it will be seen as two separate clicks instead of one double-click action, and the results will be different. (This is a common problem among beginning computer users that takes quite a bit of practice to correct).

Default – The terms "by default" or "default setting" don’t have anything to do with a "fault". It means that the selection has a pre-set, or normal, condition unless the user selects a different one. For instance, the Rack view is the "default view", which means it will be the view shown unless the user clicks on a tab to choose another view.

Here are some general hints on using the keyboard and mouse to operate the software, many of which are common to most Windows programs.

Campground Master makes extensive use of the right mouse button to open "Context Menus". These are menus that contain quick-access functions for the object that you right-click on. For example, when looking at any of the main views, you will be able to right-click on a reservation to view any of its details and perform any functions appropriate for it at the time, such as checking in, changing sites, extending a reservation, and much more. The general rule is: right-click when in doubt, just to see what you can do.

By the way, once you right-click to open the menu, the next click should use the left mouse button. In other words, the only time you need to use right-click is to open the context menu. Left-click does everything else. And once the menu is open, if you don’t want to do anything on the menu then you can close it either by clicking somewhere else (anywhere else besides on the menu), or by pressing the ESC key on the keyboard.

There are several common Windows keyboard shortcuts that come in handy Campground Master. Learning these can make you much faster at using the software, since moving the mouse and clicking takes time (and is often frustrating when you're trying to hurry and click in the wrong place!).

Instead of clicking on the toolbar icons, you can use a corresponding function key. Because F1 is the standard key for Help, the toolbar icons correspond to F2 through F8:

• F1 – Help
• F2 – New Reservation
• F3 – New Customer
• F4 – New Transaction
• F5 – Save database
• F6 – Back up database
• F7 – Log in/out
• F8 – Print (this will also work on any dialog with a Print button)
• F9 – Search

To quickly change the shown Tab View (assuming no other dialogs are open), you can either use the Tab key or Shift-Function keys. The Tab key will switch to the next one (press Tab repeatedly to cycle through them), and Shift-Tab will switch to the previous one. A more direct route is to use the function keys with Shift held down to switch directly to the corresponding view – for instance, Shift-F1 for the Rack view, Shift-F2 for the Arrivals view, and so forth.

Whenever you see a letter underlined in the top-level program menu (the "main menu") or on a button in a dialog, you can use the Alt-key with that letter instead of clicking on it with the mouse. For example, hold the Alt key down while pressing the "R" key to open the Reservations menu since the "R" is underlined. Once a menu is open (either one of the drop-down menus on the top or a right-click context menu), you can just press the associated letter without the Alt key. So to Add a Reservation, simply press Alt-R followed by the "A" key.

While the right-click can be your friend, there may be times when you would just rather not use the mouse. If you have a "Windows 95 keyboard", you can simulate the right mouse button with the "menu" key. This key is usually just to the left of the right-hand Ctrl key, and has a small picture of a context menu on it. But first you have to get to where you want to "click", since right-clicking is all about performing a function on a particular item. In Campground Master, use Alt-G to put the cursor, or selection focus, into the grid if it's not already there. (This generally shows up as one of the cells being dark blue.) Then use the 4 arrow keys on the keyboard to move the selection to the cell you want, and then press the menu key. The context menu will open, and then you can use the keyboard to select a menu item, either with the up/down arrow keys and Enter, or by using the underlined letter shortcut (eg. "T" for Transactions on a reservation context menu). You can also scroll the grid using the keyboard. After pressing Alt-G, use the Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys to quickly move a page at a time up, down, back, and forward. You can also use the arrow keys to scroll past the edge, and the grid will move so that the selection is always visible.

You will spend a lot of time entering information in dialogs, such as customer information and reservation details. Therefore it’s a good idea to learn the fastest way to get around in them. Generally you will use the Tab key to jump from one field to another. This will move the text input cursor to the next logical entry field or check box in the dialog. Mastering the Tab key (and Shift-Tab to back up a field) and also the Alt-key shortcuts for the buttons will allow you to do nearly everything in a dialog from the keyboard, without moving your hand to the mouse. Note that the Enter key will also move to the next field in most cases, but this was implemented only as a convenience for users that are familiar with an Enter-based system. This is not the Windows standard way of moving between fields, so it's best to get used to using the Tab key.

You can search for a particular Site or Customer on any of the tab views by pressing F9 or Alt-S. The main uses for this are to quickly scroll to a desired site on the Rack view, or to locate a site or customer on the other views.

When you press Alt-S, a small dialog will appear – just type any portion of a site name, or the start of a customer’s last name. There is no selection on the dialog for what you’re searching for – it will first search for a site name containing the characters you entered (it will search both the abbreviations and the "Site Name" fields). If no match is found, it will then look for a customer. So for instance if you’re looking for a customer with "Smi" in the last name but you have a cabin named "Smiley’s", it will match the cabin first.

Either way, if a match is found then the view will highlight the matched reservation (scrolling to it if necessary). In the case of the Rack view, a match of the site name will highlight the first visible cell of the site and a match of the customer will highlight the first cell of the reservation. (Note that it will only search reservations from today to the last date of the Rack that can be scrolled to, corresponding to the Maximum Future Days setting.) On any of the other views, when a match is found the entire line will be highlighted.

Many of the fields in dialogs will use pick-lists (most of which are user-definable), in the form of a drop-down list. These will have small down-arrow buttons on the right-hand side of the entry field. Initially you can use the mouse to click the down-arrow to open the list, and then click on the desired option. Alternatively, you can use Alt-down-arrow to open the list with the keyboard. Whether it is opened first or not, you can use the up and down arrow keys to change the selected item. Better yet, once you are familiar with the contents of the list, you can select items quickly using the first letter of the selection. For instance, typing "F" in the Rig Type field will typically select Fifth Wheel automatically. In cases where the first letter is used by more than one selection, just press the letter repeatedly to change the selections. For instance, "T" may take you to the Tent selection first, and pressing "T" again will go to Travel Trailer. (Since "TT" is often the abbreviation for Travel Trailer, this just happens to make sense!)

When a checkbox field is selected on a dialog (indicated by a dotted line around it), you can check or uncheck the box by pressing the spacebar on the keyboard.

Another common dialog entry field is a date, which normally uses a "date-picker" control. There are several ways to enter a date. One way is with the mouse – click the down-arrow on the right side of the entry field, and a calendar will open up. Just click on the date you want, using the arrow buttons to change the month as needed. For moving a large number of months, you can click on the month at the top of the calendar to produce a drop-down list of months to select from. You can even click on the year to produce up/down buttons to quickly change years.

However, the keyboard can be used effectively if you already know the date you want to use without referring to a calendar. When entering a date field, the month will usually be highlighted at first. Just start typing the date as month/day/year, using slashes just as you would write it. The date will be entered as you would expect. You don’t even have to enter the whole year – for instance, type "5/3/1" for May 3^rd, 2001. If all you need to change is the day, it’s even simpler. To skip the month, start typing with the slash ("/"), then type the day. For instance, to change 11/5/2001 to 11/9/2001, just type "/9", then you can Tab to the next field as needed. There are other ways also – you can use the up and down arrows to change the month, day or year (whichever is highlighted), and the right and left arrows can be used to move the highlight back and forth between the month, day, and year.

Some date fields, such as the Paid-Through date, also contain a checkbox. This is a combination field, which effectively allows you to select "None" as a date. When the box is unchecked in this case, it means there is no Paid-Through date (they have not paid). The date will be "grayed out" (lighter color) to indicate that it is not actually used. When the box is checked, the date is used just like any other date. Note that selecting a date with the mouse will automatically check the box, allowing you to save a step. If using the keyboard, you will need to check the box first (the spacebar can be used to do this from the keyboard), then you can edit the date by pressing the right-arrow key to get to the date portion of the field.

The Windows operating system supports copying text from one place to another, to save retyping things over and over. The Windows "clipboard" is used for this -- you "copy" text onto the clipboard, and then you can "paste" it somewhere else. This can be useful if you accidentally type information in the wrong place and want to move it, and also when making multiple copies of the same text. There are two different key sequences that accomplish the same thing, so you can use whichever is more comfortable for you. Basically, it is a 4-step process:

1. Highlight the text you want to copy, using the mouse (click-drag) or the keyboard (shift-arrow).

2. Copy the text to the "clipboard", with either Ctrl-Insert or Ctrl-C.

3. Move to where you want to copy the text, either with the mouse or keyboard.

4. Paste the text from the clipboard with either Shift-Insert or Ctrl-V.

Note that the text will stay on the clipboard until something else is copied, so you can paste it to another dialog field, or paste it as many times as you like by repeating steps 3 and 4 above.

If you want to move the text instead of copy it, then you can use "cut" instead of "copy" in step 2 above. Use Ctrl-X or Shift-Delete to cut (or delete) the text. The text will also be copied to the clipboard so you can paste it. Be careful not to use Ctrl-Delete, since this will delete it permanently rather than put it on the clipboard. (This is one good reason to use Ctrl-X instead of Shift-Delete, to avoid confusion.)

Note that you can also use this to get data from a report grid into another program, such as Excel. Just highlight the desired calls on the grid (or press Ctrl-A to select all cells), then Ctrl-Insert or Ctrl-C to copy to the clipboard. Then switch to the other application and use paste the data. However, only the data cells can be copied this way, not the header row and column. To get the entire report into another program, use the Export to CSV function.

This section provides a "brief" overview of what is required to set up a Campground Master database for your campground. For the details, refer to the Maintenance section later in this manual. Even if someone else does the setup, it can be helpful to learn about the basics so that you understand the software better, and in case you want to make occasional changes. Whenever you add or change rental sites, add new operators, or want to do things like adding a transaction category, you can make these changes yourself.

The Campground Master database is contained in a single file, which has all of the information specific to your campground. This includes the database definition itself, operators, sites, and pick-lists as well as all customers, reservations and transactions. The database file may be given any name you like (typically the name of the campground), and should have a file extension of ".PRK". After setting it up for the first time, you should save it to the hard disk (File – Save As from the main menu). Typically the file will be placed in the same folder on your hard drive as the program itself, but may be placed anywhere you like.

It's very important to back up your database on a regular basis, in case of disaster or computer malfunction. The software has a built-in backup feature, for ease of storing a copy of the database on a floppy disk. We recommend doing a daily backup, using a different floppy disk (or disk set, if more than one is required) for each day of the week. Using color-coded and day-labeled disks is a good idea. This way you have 7 different backup copies, and couldn’t lose more than a day or two of work unless you have multiple floppy disk failures. (Don’t hesitate to make a backup more often, particularly early in the process of setting up the database in case you want to go back to a previous version and start over.)

In addition, we recommend at least a weekly off-site backup. Rotate at least 4 different disks (or sets), and make a new backup every Friday night, for instance. Take the backup to another location – at least in another building. This will help protect your data in case of a fire, theft, or other disaster. In addition to the security of backups, this will give you about 1 month of "oops" protection – if you realize at some later time that a major database change was made by mistake, you could go back to retrieve the data up to a month old.

An operator must have Manager access to create and restore backups. See the Maintenance section for more details on making backups and restoring them.

There are several settings that aren’t part of the database, but are options in the way the data is presented or the way the program operates. These are stored on the computer so they are used each time without the need to reset them, but are not part of the database file itself. They are stored in a "Configuration settings" file, named Campground Master.ini, which is placed in your Windows directory.

The settings stored here include all of the View | Options settings, the Color Key settings, the Options settings of each tab view, the memorized reports in the Transactions tab, the Printer Setup settings, the Notice and Confirmation letter text, the last-used settings of the Occupancy, How-Heard, and Unfulfilled reports, and the path to the last database opened. It’s a good idea to keep a backup of this file for convenience, however this will need to be done manually (just copy the file to a floppy disk), since it’s not part of the database backup function.

A little background will help you understand how reservations and other database elements interact. Some of this may be getting pretty technical, and it certainly isn’t required knowledge to operate the program. But if you prefer to know more about the software so you understand why it works the way it does, then this section will help.

The Campground Master database is a relational database. This means that it consists of multiple tables, which can be related to each other through relational links. There are five main tables in the database – Parks, Sites, Customers, Reservations, and Transactions. (Operators are also a table, as well as all of the Pick Lists, but they are not important for this discussion.) Each table is a collection of records, where each record represents one item (a customer, a site, etc.), and each record is a collection of fields, where each field is a bit of information (a customer’s last name, phone number, zip code, etc.).

In most cases, you will work with the records of a table individually – for example, when using the Reservation Details dialog, you can only see or change fields in one reservation record at a time. Of course when viewing reports, you are looking at multiple records, but usually all of the same type. Where there is linking going on, it will be transparent to you. But understanding what links to what will help you make sense out of some things, like why the Notes column on the Arrivals View doesn’t show the notes you just added to the customer’s record (because the customer notes are separate from the reservation notes).

This is how the data tables are related, or linked, to each other:

- Each Site record is linked to one Park record, so from the site you can get its park information.

As you can see, the Reservation table is the primary table from which everything related to it can be reached. Everything is centered on reservations. When a report shows the customer name and phone number for a reservation, that information is actually coming out of the Customer table, through the customer link in the reservation. Thus if the information is changed for the customer, it is automatically "changed" for every reservation that the customer has ever made.

The advantages of relational databases are many, but primarily it helps keep data consistent, and allows the database to be much smaller since unique information is only stored once. (Imagine if you had to enter the site’s details for every reservation!)

Here is a quick checklist of things that you should do to get the software set up, including some option settings that you may want to set up. Refer to the appropriate sections for more details

• Pick lists:

Site Classes.

Site Types. Keep in mind that this affects many things, including rates selections.

Pad Types (if used)

Site Facing (if used)

Discounts

Payment Types

Rig types

How-heard

• Data table fields – decide what fields are important to you, and disable any that you won’t use. In particular, make sure the Site fields for metered electric and/or water are set appropriately.

• Park information, including the "Notes" fields for printing Additional Information on reservation tickets.

• Sites – Set up each campsite. You might set up just a few sites for now to help in testing other settings, and continue later.

• Taxes – set up the applicable tax rates (make sure you have a Transaction Category for each one first).

• Rates – set up rates for each site type, with specific dates, applicable discounts, etc.

• Metered electric and/or water support

Date format

Confirmation number format

Reservation Receipt default format and number of copies

Printing offsets

• Options for each tab view (Select the fields to be displayed and other options – use the Options buttons.)

• Notice text and confirmation letter text for receipts / letters

The first thing you need when working with Campground Master is an operator log-in name and password. Campground Master requires a log-in for security purposes, and for tracking the originator of reservations and transactions. It’s recommended that every person using the software have a different operator name, and be assigned an appropriate security level. In addition, one or more administrator operators should be set up, which may be additional accounts for someone. For instance, the campground manager may have a manager level log-in and also an administrator log-in. This would prevent accidental administrative changes when logged in as a manager, but allow administrator access when needed.

The current operator’s name, as well as the time and date, are recorded for every financial transaction, reservation creation, cancellation, check-in and check-out.

Additional access levels include:

• Reservations (for anyone who needs to create and manage reservations)
• Clerk (for those who need to enter transactions but not reservations, such as a gift shop clerk)
• Guest (for anyone who you want to be able to look around in the software but not change anything).

Operator information can only be viewed or changed by an administrator. If no operators have been set up yet, use the default login – Operator Name "Administrator" and Password "Password". See the Maintenance section for more information on setting up operators.

There are several "pick lists" used in the software for fields that have a limited number of options rather than free-form text entry. These are usually presented as a drop-down list in dialogs. This "limitation" is actually a great advantage, however – it speeds data entry, better organizes the database (and actually makes it smaller and faster), and allows for easy filtering of reports. For instance, you can generate financial reports for a specific site type (RV lot, cabin, etc.), certain payment methods (credit cards, cash, Visa, etc.), or any transaction category (daily rate, monthly rate, gift shop, laundry expenses, etc.).

Since each of the pick lists is user-definable, it’s not really a limitation at all. The software comes pre-defined with common selections in the pick lists, but you can edit, add, or delete selections as needed (and even add more items later), and define the order in which they appear in the lists. Careful selection of list items is recommended (particularly the Site Types and Transaction Categories), because they affect how you will use the software, and because once the lists are in use, you cannot delete items without causing gaps in the useful data.

Each of the data tables in the database (Sites, Customers, Reservations, Transactions, etc.) are made up of a list of Fields. The fields included in the tables are user-definable to a certain extent, adding to the flexibility of the software. For instance, if you don’t have a need to ever know about the Estimated Arrival Time for a reservation, you can disable that field and it will be removed from the database. Besides saving disk space, the disabled field will be removed from the dialogs resulting in a cleaner view and slightly faster data entry.

Many of the fields are "Fixed", which means that they cannot be disabled. These fields are crucial to the operation of the software, such as the reservation start date. Others are optional and can be enabled or disabled as needed, as in the example above.

A note about field values -- all fields can have a "blank" state in addition to having data in them. This saves both space and confusion – for instance, the "number of children" field for customers is blank (unknown) unless you enter a value for it – it does not assume (or show) "0" children unless you actually enter "0". However there are some cases where "blank" is the same as assuming a value, such as yes/no fields. Blank is assumed to mean "no" for fields like the customer’s "Good Sam member" field. In other words, if you don’t check the Good Sam box on the customer entry dialog, it assumes "no".

There is a special category of fields called "Attributes", which appear in the Reservation table and the Sites table. There are dozens of attributes, like "Has 50 Amp", "Waterfront", and "Pad Type". These are used primarily for selecting Site Preferences for a reservation. Once the preferences have been selected, the list of sites available will show only sites that have matching attributes. Thus you can easily match a customer to a site that will meet his or her needs the best. Many of the pre-defined attributes won’t apply to your particular campground, so you can disable these or rename them to something more useful. For instance, if none of your sites are waterfront but you have some desirable cabins that are cliff-side, just change the text from "waterfront" to "cliff-side".

Note that once the database is in use, you can still enable and disable fields or change their text. However, be aware that any data in newly-disabled fields will be lost even if you re-enable the field later (assuming the database is saved to disk and reloaded before re-enabling it).

The Park information is not seen very often in the software, but it's very important. It primarily consists of the campground’s name, address and other contact information. This is used on the printed receipts. You can also set up a default check-in and check-out time (currently only used for convenience when setting an estimated arrival time). There are also three Notes fields for the park, which can be used to add additional notes to the printed receipts.

The other important thing about the park setup is the Authorization Code. This code is required to access full functionality of the software (in fact you won’t be able to define your sites without one), and is keyed off of the other park information. When you purchase a license for Campground Master you will need to provide a Key Code, which is generated from your park name and address information. Cottonwood Software will then issue you an Authorization Code, which you must enter to unlock the software. Thus, if the park changes its name or address, a new authorization code will be needed (but you will not be required to purchase a new license unless this is an additional installation).

The Sites table is the main part of the database setup for your campground. Here you define all of the rental "sites". A site can be a campsite, an RV lot, a cabin, a boat dock, a pavilion, a bicycle, or anything else you need to rent out by the day. The sites table is what shows up in the Rack View (usually the Y-axis of the Rack grid), as well as playing a large part in how other views are used. Every aspect of the sites is user-definable, including the name (actually 3 different designations), the type, the dates available for rental, and dozens of attributes that can be used to quickly determine whether a site fits a customer’s needs.

There are some Pick Lists that should be defined before setting up the sites: the Site Classes, Site Types, and Pad Types. (These should have been defined in the earlier steps.) These are helpful in categorizing the sites and simplifying the selection process when making a reservation, as well as filtering statistics when generating reports. Once these pick lists are set up, you can define the details of each site. The main pick list is the Site Types, as this list appears on many views and dialogs and makes it easy for you to limit the current view to just Full Hookup sites or Tent sites, for instance. The Site Classes and Pad Types are helpful when selecting site preferences for a reservation to narrow the search for a site.

You will want to set up the applicable tax rates for ease of transaction entry, rates definitions, and reporting. First make sure you have a Transaction Category for each one, then set up the Taxes.

You will want to set up your applicable rental rates for each site type, plus add-on charges, meter rates if needed, and perhaps other rates for convenience. This is one of the more involved processes, and is completely optional (you could enter the amount of each transaction manually), but is well worth it.

Since rate definitions can be categorized by Site Type and by Discount, the design of those pick lists is very important. When selecting a rate to use for a reservation, the list of rates displayed will be filtered by the site type, discount, and the reservation dates. Therefore you can minimize the selections shown by planning your site types and discount selections carefully.

In particular, You should have at least one Site Type for each different basic rental rate. This does not need to include add-ons like 50A electric, phone, etc. Likewise, Rates definitions are easier if you have only one site type for each rate needed. Otherwise, you may have to define duplicate rates to cover each site type.

Discounts work similarly, but in most cases these will not be as complicated as site types, since there is usually only one kind of discount rate for each discount club.

There are 3 things that need to be done for properly supporting metered electric and/or water:

1. Enable the appropriate fields in the Sites Data Table (or disable them if no metered support is needed).

2. Enter the current meter reading for each site that has a meter (even if it’s 0).

3. Define Rates for the electric and/or water meter charges.

Now whenever you select the electric meter rate for charging a customer, a simple dialog will appear to enter the new meter reading. The Site record will be automatically updated with the new reading, date, and reservation, and the appropriate charge will be added to the reservation.

There are several settings that aren’t part of the database, but are options in the way the data is presented or the way the program operates. These are stored on the computer so they are used each time without the need to reset them, but are not in the database file itself. They are stored in a "Configuration settings" file, named Campground Master.ini, which is placed in your Windows directory. (You don’t really need to know this unless you are the system administrator.) Some of these options are likely to be set up once and not changed, while some are likely to be changed often in order to view things in a different way. They can be changed at any time without affecting the database.

There are different printer setup functions for each kind of printing that the software does. You can customize the orientation, paper size, and paper source settings for each printing task, and even specify a different printer for each task. For instance, you may want to print receipts on small paper and general reports on normal paper, and of course envelopes need their own paper and orientation settings. To avoid changing paper, you can connect a different printer for each printing task (this would even allow printing of confirmation letters and envelopes at the same time, for instance). All of these settings are remembered so that they only need to be set once.

The first printer setting, "Default (grid-type reports)", is used for everything that isn’t a special format. This includes the tab views and any report that prints in a grid-type format. In some cases you will want to set this to Landscape orientation so that more columns fit on the page. The other printer settings are for specific forms – registration tickets, invoices, mailing labels, envelopes, etc.

Note that any printer settings that use the Windows "default printer" will automatically change if the Windows default printer is changed (for instance if you install a new printer). The settings should be re-checked in any case, since the new printer may not support the same paper size or source, resulting in an improper setting.

This setting will make any grid-type reports print in a basic black & white format with no colors and no shading of headers. This will save ink, print faster and make printouts look better on non-color printers. This option also appears on the View | Options | Printing tab below, but was also placed here for convenience.

This setting will ensure that any grid-type reports don’t require multiple pages in width (they may still require multiple pages in length). The downside is that each report will print in a different size text, sometimes much too large and sometimes much too small (whatever is required to make it fit). This option also appears on the View | Options | Printing tab below, but was also placed here for convenience.

You’ll see this option in the View main menu, and it controls whether the main toolbar (the large picture icons below the menu) are displayed. While most users will like the toolbar for quick access to the main functions, expert users that know the keyboard shortcuts may prefer hiding the toolbar so that more space is available for the tab views.

This option is in the View main menu. It controls whether the status bar is visible, which will appear at the very bottom of the main window. The status bar simply shows short help-hints for menu items (whatever the mouse cursor is hovering over), some progress messages (for instance, "saving database"), and the state of keys like Caps Lock and Num Lock. Its functionality is minimal, so most users prefer to leave it turned off in order to gain an extra line on the tab views.

There are many options here that affect the look and operation of the tab views, printing, and general program options. The Options dialog has 4 tabs on it with different kinds of options…

All of these options are used to affect the way the Rack View is displayed (the main dynamic interactive report screen). Many of these won’t make sense until the Rack View is explained below. A description is given here of each option, but more information may be found in the Rack View section. Note that they also affect the mini-rack view on the New Reservation dialog.

Show Day of Week in header – Controls whether the day of the week (Mon, Tue, etc.) is shown for each date header cell. While this can be helpful, it does take extra space on the grid.

Show Year in header – Controls whether the year is shown for each date header cell. Helpful if you do a lot of multi-year reservations, but most users leave it off to save the grid space.

Show Site Types header – Controls whether the site type is shown next to the site name in the grid. This can be useful if the site names show no clue as to their type, for instance if they are all just numbers.

Hide a site if it's unavailable for the entire shown date range – This option allows you to minimize the number of sites listed in the rack, showing only those that are available for at least part of the date range shown. This can be particularly useful if some sites are only available during certain seasons, or if a large number of sites are currently unavailable for an extended time due to renovation. See the Sites Setup Dialog section in Maintenance Functions for more information on season dates and special dates.

Show Unassigned reservation counts in open sites (e.g. "No Site: 4") – By default, any reservations made without a sites assigned to them will show up on the Rack as a "No Site" notation in open site cells for the corresponding dates. This serves as a reminder that there are some reservations on that date that still need sites assigned (so don't fill in all available sites with other reservations!). To see the details on these reservations, you need to go to the Unassigned tab view. However, you may prefer to turn this notation off just for aesthetic reasons, for instance if your normal practice is to leave reservations unassigned until they arrive and checking the Unassigned list is part of your normal routine.

Cell Width – The default (and minimum) cell width for the rack is 50 (measured in pixels, or "screen dots"), so that the date header will display properly. While this allows the most possible grid cells to be shown at once, it may truncate more of the customer names than you prefer. You can increase the cell width to see more complete names. A good medium value is 55, which will allow most common names to fit and still allow nearly 2 weeks to be shown at once on screen with 800x600 resolution.

Minimum future days – This defines how many days in the future will be available for instant scrolling on the rack, regardless of future reservations. In other words, a value of 31 will allow you to scroll over to see at least 1 month in the future, without having to change the End date in the header. Note that the actual number of days shown may be greater (up to the maximum, below) if there are reservations beyond the minimum future days value.

Maximum future days – This defines the maximum number of days shown for instant scrolling, regardless of what future reservations are defined.

Maximum past days – The maximum number of days in the past that will be available for instant scrolling, before the Start Date must be changed in the header. (This is also the minimum past days shown.)

Note that the 3 settings above don’t limit the ability to view or create reservations. They only help minimize the number of cells in the Rack that the program needs to keep visible under typical usage conditions, to increase response speed. If your computer is fast enough, there is no reason you can’t set these to show a full year in each direction by default, so that you rarely have to change the dates in the header and can simply scroll to the desired dates.

"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…

Start New Reservations with "Show Available" checked – This option only affects the "New Reservation" dialog. When set, the "Show Available" option will default to being checked (on) by default in the New Reservation dialog, so only the available sites will be shown.

These options allow you to tailor the look of printed reports. They primarily affect any reports that use grids (which includes everything except the Reservation Receipt.), except for the Always Preview option which affects every print function.

Print Black & White – When this is selected, all grid reports are simply black text, optionally with grid lines (according to the Grid Lines option described later). When not selected, the grids will use the exact colors as seen on the display, including the gray headers and the color-coded reservation status. Black & White will result in more readable reports on non-color printers like laser printers, and also helps save ink and can speed up report output on color printers. It's common to want some reports printed in black & White and others in color, so this option is also available under File in the main menu for easy access.

Fit Output to Page Horizontally – When this is selected, the font size in reports will be shrunk or enlarged, as needed, so that they fit the width of the page. (The reports can still take multiple pages if it’s longer than the page vertically, even with the horizontally-fit font.) This can result in some very small text (or very large text in some cases), but will save paper and make some reports easier to manage. When not selected, a fixed font size will be used (see Zoom percent below) no matter how large the report will be, which could cause the report to span many pages horizontally and/or vertically. It is common to want some reports printed with this option set and others without it, so this option is also available under File in the main menu.

Always Preview Reports Before Printing – When this option is set, you will get the chance to preview the printout before actually printing a report, even if you don’t select Print Preview from the File menu. In fact, for reports that are printed from Print buttons in dialogs rather than the main menu or toolbar button, this option is the only way to get a preview. It's highly recommended that you leave this option turned on so that you don’t accidentally print reports in a tiny font or that will span many pages due to an improper Fit Output to Page setting.

Zoom percent (100 = normal) – This affects any of the grid reports, as long as the Fit Output to Page option is not set. With the 100 percent value, the printed grid will be approximately the same physical size as on the computer screen. You can adjust this value to suit your preferences. Set it to a smaller value, for instance 80 percent, to fit more on a page. If you want a larger printout, perhaps for posting the day’s arrivals on a bulletin board, set it to a larger value like 125.

Skip blank fields (when printing single records) – When using the Print button from dialogs such as Reservation Details, Site Details, and Customer Details, this option will shorten the output so that it only shows fields that are filled in. This will usually result in a printout that will fit on a single page.

Use a grid format (when printing single records) - When using the Print button from dialogs such as Reservation Details, Site Details, and Customer Details, this option will make the printout be in a grid. When turned off, the printouts will be in columnar text format, which is faster and uses less ink.

Reservation Receipt Default Format – Select the receipt format you will use most often. You can select the format any time you print a receipt (without coming back here), but setting the most common one here will save steps later. See the section Working with Transactions for details on each format.

Always Preview Receipts Before Printing – When this option is set, you will get the chance to preview the printout before actually printing a receipt. (This option is the only way to get a preview for receipts.)

Default receipt copies to print – If you usually print duplicate receipts, you can change this to '2' so that you don't have to change the number of copies every time you print a receipt. (You can still change the number of copies on the print dialog when printing, this just determines the default number.). Note that this also affects the batch receipt printing, so be careful when printing batches of receipts if only one copy is needed of each receipt.

Printer Offsets – You can fine-tune the printer offsets for printing forms that require precise positioning such as mailing labels. The Top and Left numbers represent the closest point to the edge that the printer can print. If you find labels printing too close to the top (or left), you will need to decrease the offset to compensate.

Address position for Envelopes – Set the offset from the edge of the envelope where you want the address to appear.

Address position for Letters and Invoices – Set the offset from the edge of the page where you want the address to appear for full-page invoices and confirmation letters. This is important if you use window envelopes. Otherwise, you can set them closer to the top of the page to save space for more transactions.

These options control whether the user is prompted for certain error or warning conditions.

Warn when no site is selected for a new reservation – When this is set, the user will be warned when making a New Reservation and a site has not been selected. If you commonly make reservations without assigning a site until they arrive, then you may want to turn off this prompt.

Warn when a reservation is made on an "unavailable" date for a site – Normally, the program will show a warning prompt if a reservation is made that covers a date that is marked as unavailable for the site. You can disable this warning if your reservations commonly cover unavailable dates. One example of this would be making a full month reservation for a site that’s normally only available weekends, to avoid making 4 separate weekend reservations.

Ask for confirmations for simple reservation changes and actions – If you’re sure-fingered enough to not require prompts for every right-click action on the Rack, etc., then you can turn off these prompts to save time.

Open a Transaction dialog when... – This section allows you to specify the circumstances in which you want the New Transactions dialog to automatically appear. Your choices here will probably depend on whether you enter charges before a reservation is checked in, and whether you prefer to review charges any time a change is made. These options are self-explanatory, so they won't be detailed here.

Automatically save the database after each action – This option is enabled by default, so that the database is saved to the computer’s hard disk after every action – for instance, after every new reservation, check-in, transaction, or anything else that changes the database. Note that it's saved after every main dialog is closed, not while working in the dialog. While it's preferred to leave this enabled to avoid data loss in the case of a malfunction or power loss, you may need to turn it off if it causes a noticeable delay due to a slow computer or large database. You may also wish to disable this option if you are experimenting or making changes that you’re not sure you want to keep, so you could reload the previous database without saving the new changes.

Compress the database backups to a ZIP file – This option is enabled by default, so database backups take less space on a floppy disk. This results in the backup database being compressed using the common ZIP file format, which will take one fourth the disk space or less. (Don’t confuse this with ZIP brand disks by Iomega.) This also allows the backup to be made to multiple disks if it’s too large to fit on one disk (disk spanning is only possible with this option enabled). The built-in Restore function can read these ZIP files directly, and any commercial file compression utility, such as WinZIP, can extract the database from the ZIP file. While there is no real advantage to turning this option off, there may be rare cases where a ZIP file cannot be created (usually due to a Windows configuration problem, an error message appears when making a backup in this case), so you can turn this off if needed.

Confirmation Number Formatting – This section allows you to specify how the confirmation number is created from the reservation record ID. You can change these any time, but any reservations made previously will not change – it will only affect new reservations.

Prefix - Specify a prefix that each confirmation number will start with (you can use letters or numbers or any characters you like). It can be any length.

Minimum digits – This will be the minimum length of the entire confirmation number, including the prefix. Zeroes will be added between the prefix and the record ID if necessary. The confirmation number will be longer than the minimum if required to include all of the non-zero portion of the record ID. Example: With a prefix of "R102" and a minimum of 8 digits, reservation record ID #00000043 will have a confirmation number of R1020043, while record ID #00087546 will have a confirmation number of R10287546 (9 digits).

Tabbed list view options (Arrivals, Departures, etc.) – These options affect the appearance of several of the tab views – Arrivals, Departures, On Site, Unassigned, Non-Reserved, and Payments Due.

Show a "Total" row – This enables the extra row at the bottom of the view, showing the total number of entries (number of reservations, customers, etc. in the list).

Show reservations not assigned to a site even if a Site Type is selected – Used for the views that have a Site Type selection (all except the Unassigned and Non-Reserved views). When this is not enabled, the list will show only entries for the specified site type selected in the drop-down list (unless of course All Site Types is selected). When this is enabled, it will show entries for the selected site type plus those for any with unassigned sites. Use this option if you prefer to think in terms of "it might end up as any type, so show it with all types". For example, if you want to show all Arrivals that "are" or "might be" for the selected site type.

Show grid lines by default (must restart to take effect) – This is the default, so all grid views show the grid lines. If you prefer not to see lines in the grids for a cleaner look, then you can turn this option off. It will not immediately turn grid lines on or off, but will take effect the next time the program is started. You can manually turn off the grid lines on each grid (except the Rack view) using the Grid Lines option on the right-click context menu.

Date Format – There are several date formats to choose from, which will be used most places that a date appears on a report or printed receipt. Selections include several variations of both m/d/y and d/m/y formats, with or without the weekday. Note that the computer’s regional settings (for instance U.S. or Canada) will automatically affect the date-picker controls, but will not affect this setting. This setting must be changed manually.

The Color Key has a dual purpose – it shows you what the reservation color coding means, and also allows you to change any of the colors. This option is also available on all of the right-click context menus for quick access.

The Color Key dialog shows a list of reservation status conditions, and each status condition will be shown in the current colors defined for it. The list is longer than the dialog allows, so you will need to scroll the list to see them all.

To change a color for a status, first right-click on it in the list. You can change both the text color and the background color. The standard Windows color dialog is used to change colors, where you can select one of the basic colors or define your own color. To define your own color, first click on one of the empty Custom Colors boxes. Then click on the approximate color in the "rainbow box", and adjust the brightness slider control (on the right side) until the color is just right. The selected color will be updated dynamically in the box below the rainbow (Color | Solid). Then click the Add to Custom Colors button.

You don’t actually have to define a custom color to use any color for a status (whatever color is in the color box will be used when you click OK). However, saving it as a custom color will allow you to easily use it later, and you can use it for other status entries.

When finished changing all of the colors to your liking, click the OK button on the Color Key. If you click Cancel, ALL of the color changes will be cancelled.

This is the standard Windows caption used by nearly all Windows program. Besides the name of the program, the Campground Master caption has a few informative items in it.

Database name – You will likely be using the same database at all times, so the database name will probably be the name of your campground. If you do change databases, for instance to manage multiple campgrounds, this will tell you at a glance which one you are working with.

Change indicator – If an asterisk (*) appears next to the database name, this means that the database has been changed and not yet saved to the disk. (You will rarely see this if you have the Auto-save option turned on.)

Operator – The currently logged in operator name is shown, so that you know whether or not you’re operating under the correct log-in.

Window control buttons – These are the standard Windows buttons to minimize, maximize/restore, and close the window. If you have used Windows programs before, you should be familiar with these. In case you’re new to Windows…

The first button, which looks like an underline character ( _ ), will minimize the window (shrink it to a button on the Windows task bar). To get it back after minimizing it, just click on its task bar button.

The second button will either be Maximize or Restore, depending on the current state of the window. Clicking on it once will enlarge (Maximize) the window to fill the entire screen, and clicking it again will restore the window to its normal size. In most cases, you will want to keep the window maximized so you can see as many reservations as possible in the Rack view..

The last button, (X), will close the window and shut down the program. This is the same as selecting Exit from the File menu.

The main menu is always at the top, just under the program caption. It contains all of the main functions of the program and is fairly self-explanatory (each function is detailed elsewhere in this manual).

The status bar appears at the very bottom of the window, and can be turned off from the View menu. It simply shows short help-hints for menu items (whatever the mouse cursor is hovering over), some progress messages (for instance, "saving database"), and the state of keys like Caps Lock and Num Lock. Its functionality is minimal, so most users prefer to leave it turned off in order to gain an extra line on the tab views.

The toolbar is the row of picture icons below the menu. (It can be turned off from the View menu.) The Toolbar can be used for quick access to the most common top-level functions. Each of the functions are also available as Menu commands and as function key shortcuts (F2 through F9), so you can turn off the toolbar without losing functionality if you prefer using the menu or if you are comfortable with the keyboard shortcuts. The buttons (icons) will normally be shown in color, but will be gray if the option is disabled. For instance, all but the Log-in button will be gray until an operator is logged in.

New Reservation (Phone) – This will open the New Reservation dialog, the same as the menu selection Reservations | Add New Reservation.

New Customer (Faces) – This opens the customer editing dialog, the same as the menu selection Customers | Add New Customer. It’s handy for adding new customers or for looking up customer information (you can use the Find button on the dialog immediately without adding a new customer).

New Transaction (Cash register) – This opens the New Transaction dialog, the same as the menu selection Transactions | Add New Transaction. This is the generic transaction dialog, where you can enter any kind of transaction. It’s most useful for entering transactions that are not bound to reservations, such as counter sales, expenses, or other income.

Save Database (Diskette) – This will instantly save the database, the same as the menu selection File | Save. This button will be gray (disabled) most of the time if you have the Auto-save option enabled. Otherwise, it’s the easiest way to save the database, which you should do as often as possible.

Backup Database (Safe) – This will create a backup copy of the database, the same as the menu selection Maintenance | Back Up Database. You should make a backup at least once per day, and this button will help you remember to do that since it’s right next to the Log-in button.

Log In/Out (Key) – This is used to log an operator in our out, the same as the Log In/Out menu selection.

Print (Printer) – This will print the currently visible tab view, the same as the menu selection File | Print (or File | Print Preview if the Always Preview option is enabled).

Search (Magnifying glass) – This opens the Search function, which allows you to search the current tab view for a site name or customer name. The view will automatically scroll to the first match found. This function has no menu equivalent, but can also be invoked with the F9 key or Alt-S. To search the entire database for a customer or reservation, instead of just the current tab view, see the Find Customer and Find Reservation menu functions.

This is the main portion of the screen, where most of the action is. It will fill the remainder of the window between the toolbar and status bar (if present), regardless of the window size. It's discussed in detail in the following Dynamic Interactive Report Screens section.

The dynamic interactive report screens, or Tab Views, are the heart of the software and provide the information and functions commonly needed every day. They are "dynamic", meaning that they will automatically update every time a change is made to the database. You don’t have to "generate" these reports, since they are always up to date. They are "interactive", meaning that you can work with the data directly on the report – just right-click on the data and you will be given several operations to choose from.

Tab views consist of a grid for the report itself, plus a control area above the grid. The controls for each view are similar, with dates and quick-pick drop-down boxes for filtering the report, plus buttons and other options specific to the report. These are explained in detail below.

To view any of the Tab Views, simply click on its "tab" (the row of buttons above the views). The selected view will show up instantly. (There may be a slight delay the first time it’s accessed, but it will be much faster thereafter.) The name of the selected view will be shown in bold text so you can easily see which one is active. You can also change tab views using the Tab key or the Shift-function keys (see the Keyboard Shortcuts section in Chapter 1 for details).

Each tab view has an access level. Only the Rack view can be seen when no operator is logged in or if a Guest is logged in. A Clerk access level is required to view On Site and Payments Due, a Manager access level is required for the Transactions tab view, and a Reservations access level is required for the others (and also required to perform functions on the Rack view). Tab views that have a higher access level than the current operator will have their title shown in a light gray text, and clicking it will simply not have any effect.

Tab views will have scroll bars if the data is too large for the screen. To see the rest of the data, simply drag the "thumb button" in the scroll bar or click in the scroll bar in the direction you want to view. With the exception of the Rack, which uses uniform cell widths, the cells in the grids will auto-size to fit the text in them. Therefore each report will have varying widths depending on the length of names, phone numbers, notes, etc. for the items in the lists.

Whenever your mouse moves over the grid in a tab view, you will likely see a variety of little pop-up messages. These are tips that give you a little more information, so that the grid can be smaller and still have the information easily available. For instance, putting the mouse over the last name of a customer will pop up their first names as well. If you hover over a Site name, the site’s Description will pop up. And if you hover over the date headers on the Rack view, the full date will be shown if it’s not already part of the header (e.g. if you turn off the options to show the Day of Week or Year in the header). Note that these tips will stay on the screen for a few seconds, and will disappear until the mouse is moved again.

In addition to these pop-up tips when hovering, you can get detailed reservation and site information in the form of Quick-Info windows when double-clicking on a cell. See below for more information on these.

You can quickly locate a site or customer on the tab views using the Search icon in the toolbar (the magnifying glass), or keyboard shortcuts F9 or Alt-S. See the Keyboard Shortcuts section in Chapter 1 for details on this function.

The control area above the reports allows you to filter the information to be displayed. Some of these are common to most reports and are described here. Unique controls are described with each of the reports. Again, since these are dynamic reports, the view will change immediately when you adjust these controls.

Most important is the date or date range selection – each view has a start (From) date and most have an end (To) date. In addition to the common date-picker controls, there will be left and right buttons (arrows, "<" and ">") on each side of the dates if your screen size is 800x600 or greater (there isn't enough room for them on 640x480 screens). These buttons will increase or decrease the date by one day, making it easy to step through dates one click at a time. Note that when changing one date, if the other date causes a backward date range, it will automatically be changed to the same date. Thus if you increment the From date on the Arrivals tab and the To date is already the same, then the To date will automatically be adjusted to match the new From date. This makes it easy to step through single dates without changing both date-picker controls.

In addition, many reports have buttons for Today, Week, Month and Year. This makes it easy to see these common ranges with a single click. Note that the Departures and On Site views have Yes/Today instead of Today, which is an abbreviation for "Yesterday and Today", so that you can easily see these two days at once. (It’s useful to see yesterday’s Departures and On Site because the reports are based on the reservation's Last Night, so "yesterday's" customer may not actually check out until today.)

Another common control is the Site Types drop-down list. This limits the reservations or sites in the report to the site type selected. The default is All Site Types, but you can select a single Site Type to view, or in some cases you can view all Assigned Sites (i.e. reservations for which a site has been assigned).

Most tab views (all but the Rack view) have an Options button. This is generally used to select which fields are displayed in the view. These settings are remembered, even after the program is shut down, so you only need to set them up for your requirements one time, and change them only when needed for a special printout, for instance.

Much of the functionality of the program is available through the right-click context menus of the tab views. (In fact, many functions can only be done through the right-click menus.) This makes working with reservations extremely fast – see it, click it, and it’s done (in many cases).

When you right-click on a cell in the grid, a menu will pop up with operations available for the item you clicked on. This menu will be appropriate for the cell you click on, so it will change depending on which view you are on and which item you click on -- for instance, depending on whether it’s the customer name, the site name, a blank cell, etc. Many times you will see one or more of the menu items "grayed out" (disabled). This means that some functions are not available for that cell due to its current state. For instance, you can’t cancel a checked-in reservation, so that option will be disabled. You will also see some options change depending on a reservation’s status. The software attempts to prevent illogical or impossible operations. See below for an explanation of the functions available through the right-click menus.

In addition to right-click, you can double-click on a cell. There are two possible results of double-click. On an "open" cell in the Rack (a site that’s available for the date clicked on), double-click will open the New Reservation dialog, with the site and date already filled in. This is the quickest way to start a new reservation if you can see the desired site and starting date in the Rack view. The other double-click function is to show a Quick-Info window for the selected reservation or site. This will happen for any double-click other than on open cells on the Rack. The Quick-Info window is a temporary window (just click somewhere else to close it), but shows the critical information for a reservation (and in some cases will show information not available elsewhere, such as conflicting reservations for that date).

View Reservation Quick-Info and View Site Quick-Info – These are often the top selection in the menu, and are the same as double-clicking on the cell (opens a quick-info window).

Reservation Details, Customer Details, and Site Details – These open the respective Details dialogs, where you can view and/or edit any of the corresponding details.

Check In and Check Out – These will let you instantly check in or check out a reservation. If today’s date doesn’t seem to match the first or last night of the reservation as appropriate, you will be warned and given the option to change the date in the reservation to today (handy for early check-ins or check-outs). The Transactions dialog will appear so that you can review the customer’s bill and adjust it as needed or print a receipt.

Transactions – This will open the Transactions dialog and allow you to view transactions or enter new transactions for a reservation. See the section Working with Reservations for more information.

Confirm, Guarantee, or Cancel Reservation – These do exactly what they say, opening an appropriate dialog as needed.

Assign or Change Site – This will open the reservation dialog and allow you to assign a new site to a reservation, whether it already had a site assigned or not.

New Reservation for this customer – This will open the New Reservation dialog for making an additional reservation for the same customer. The customer information will already be filled in. This will not affect the current reservation, and is handy for making future reservations for a current customer.

New Reservation – (Rack view only) – This option is available if you click on an open (available) site cell on the Rack view. It is the same as double-clicking on the cell, and opens a New Reservation dialog with the site and start date already selected accordingly.

Add Concurrent (Linked) Reservations – This will open the New Reservation dialog, but is used to add additional sites to the existing reservation. For example, use this to add more sites to a group reservation, or to add a trailer storage site to a reservation. Basically you will just choose additional sites and leave the rest of the information as it is. The new sites will each have a reservation record generated for them, but they will be linked to the same reservation and the only difference will be the assigned site.

Split Reservation at this date – (Rack view only) – Use this to make two reservations out of one, where one reservation ends the day before the date you clicked on, and the other begins on the date you clicked on. This is useful if you want to move a customer to a new site in the middle of their stay (split it, then use Change Site on the new half), or if they will leave for awhile and come back later (split it, then change the start date of the new half). If the split date is today or in the future, the second half will not be checked in yet (it will show a Pending status). If it's in the past, then both halves will keep the checked-in status (assuming it's checked in now). Note that a spit must be done in the normal range of the reservation, not in a Blocked date range.

This is New Start / Last / Blocked Date – (Rack view only) – Use one of these three options in current or future reservations to quickly change the reservation dates right on the rack.

Remove Blocked Dates – (Rack view only) – If you click on the last date of a blocked range, you can use this option to completely remove the blocked dates from the reservation.

Extend Previous Reservation to this date – (Rack only, on open site cells) – Use this to easily extend a reservation (the one immediately preceding the selected cell in the rack) to end on the selected date. It will add days to the end of the reservation resulting in a longer reservation, rather than change the reservation’s start date.

Block Previous Reservation to this date – (Rack only, on open site cells) – Similar to Extend Previous…, this will add Blocked dates to a reservation (e.g. when you know that the customer might stay until this date but isn’t sure yet, and doesn’t want to be charged for the additional days yet.)

Advance Next Reservation to this date – (Rack only, on open site cells) – This will change the start date of the next-in-line reservation on the rack to the selected date. (It will add extra days to the front of the reservation, not change the end date.)

Make Site Available / Unavailable this date – (Rack only, on open site cells) – This will add or remove dates to the site’s dates-unavailable or dates-available list as appropriate, changing the "available" status of the site for the selected day. This can be useful for scheduling short periods of maintenance on a site, or to indicate that a site was not available due to an emergency or electrical problem (even if it’s a date in the past, this can be worthwhile for accurately calculating Occupancy reports). For longer changes in periods of availability, it may be easier to enter the date ranges manually in the Site Details dialog.

Print for this reservation – (Any view, if right-clicking on a valid reservation cell) – This allows you to print either a single receipt or an envelope for the selected reservation. (The receipt format can be selected from the dialog that appears).

Print this view – This is the same as using the Print icon, or F8, or File / Print from the main menu. It is here primarily for consistency.

Print for all reservations – (all but the Rack and Transactions view) – In addition to "This View", which is the same as Print this view above, this has options to batch-print mailing labels, envelopes, or receipts for all reservations shown in the current view. (They can also be filtered further if needed, or you can select which ones to actually print, in the dialog that comes up.)

Color Key – This displays the Color Key dialog so you can see the meanings of the reservation status colors, and to change the colors used.

Grid Lines – This will turn the grid lines on or off. A checkmark will be shown next to the menu item if the grid lines are currently on.

Flip Orientation – (Rack or Transactions views only) – If you prefer dates on the side and sites across the top in the Rack view, then you can flip the orientation to show it this way. This way you can see more days at once, but fewer sites. The orientation will be saved and used each time you restart the program. Likewise, when showing Summary reports on the Transaction view, you can flip the orientation so that dates are in rows and the category summaries are in columns. This preference will likely depend on how many dates or how many categories you are summarizing. The transaction orientation isn’t saved in general, but will be saved with any "memorized" transaction reports.

All of the views except for the Rack view are tables where each line corresponds to a record and each column is a field of the record. The fields shown by default are appropriate for the selected view (use the Options button to change which fields are shown). By default they are sorted by date or other appropriate field, and whenever sorted by date there will be a blank line inserted between each different date for ease of reading the report.

You can have the report sorted by any field you like, simply by clicking on the column header for that field. A small arrow will be shown in the header, indicating the direction of the sort. If you want to sort the column in the other direction, click the header again – each click will reverse the sort for that column.

Some views have an option (under the Options button) to include empty sites when sorting by Site. This provides better visual feedback for "empty" sites and is especially useful for walk-around checking, but also makes the report longer.

Blank separation lines will only be used when sorting by date (and some other cases on Transactions). Also note that in certain cases, the program will automatically use a secondary sort. For instance when sorting by Site Type, all of the reservations with the same Site Type will then be sorted by site, and those on the same site will further be sorted by date.

As covered in the Program Options and Settings section, the Rack view cells are a consistent width determined by the Cell Width setting. The other reports, which are columns of data fields, are auto-sized according to the text in the fields (the cells will grow as needed to avoid truncating the text). However, you can have temporary control over the cell widths if you want to adjust the report for printing. For instance, if you don’t need some of the fields or if some columns are blank for all records, you can save space by shrinking those fields to almost nothing. This may reduce the number of pages needed for wide reports, or allow the font to be larger when using the "Fit to Page" print option.

To resize the columns, place the mouse cursor over the dividing line between the column header cells. The cursor will change to a right-left arrow (similar to this: ß à ). Then hold the left mouse button down and move the line to the width you desire. You can change the columns to any width, but be aware that this will likely result in truncating text, and since the ellipses (…) will not appear for text on these reports, there is no indication that part of the text is missing.

As mentioned, the resizing is temporary. It will remain the new size for printing or scrolling around, but any action that causes the report to refresh, such as sorting a column or making any reservation change, will cause all of the columns to auto-size again.

To print the contents of any Tab View report, simply click the Print button on the toolbar (or select File | Print from the main menu). There are several options that can be used to customize the format of the reports, which are described in the Printing Options section of Program Options and Settings.

Besides those options, don’t forget that you can print in Landscape mode to get a wider report on one page. To change to landscape mode, use File | Printer Setup | Default. The setting will be remembered even when the program is closed and restarted.

It’s worth mentioning again that you should use Print Preview to see what the report will look like before printing it. This is because the size of the report and the settings (Fit to Page and Zoom Percent) can make the difference between getting a nice report or getting 20 pages that have to be taped together, or a report printed in such tiny text that it’s unreadable. The Print Preview function also allows you to step through pages to see what’s on each page, so you can select certain pages to print if you don’t need the whole report.

If you prefer to print in black & white to save ink (or if you don't have a color printer), it may be a good idea to add the "Status" field to your reports, since the printout won't have the color coding. This is an optional field under the Options button on all views (except the Rack).

Once you select Print (either after Print Preview or instead of Previewing), printing uses the standard Windows print dialog. This allows you to select the page numbers to be printed, which printer to use, and other printer properties. Generally this only requires you to click OK on the Print dialog to send it to the printer. There is no need to wait for the entire document to finish printing – once it is queued up for the printer, the print dialog will close automatically and you can continue working or print another report.

Any of the Tab View reports, as well as almost any report grid in a dialog such as Find Customer, can be exported. There are two ways to get the data in another program -- through Copy/Paste, or with the Export to CSV function.

To copy data directly to another program such as Excel, just highlight the desired calls on the grid (or press Ctrl-A to select all cells), then Ctrl-Insert or Ctrl-C to copy to the clipboard. Then switch to the other application and paste the data. The data is copied in Tab-delimited format, so it can be pasted into nearly any program that supports Tab-delimited data or text. However, only the data cells can be copied this way, not the header row and column. To get the entire report into another program, use the Export to CSV function.

CSV is a common file format, "Comma Separated Values". You can export any of the grid reports to a CSV file which can be loaded into a spreadsheet like Excel, or loading into a PDA like a Palm or Pocket PC. When a report is exported to a CSV file, it will contain all of the data and the headers just as shown in the current view or dialog.

To begin the export, either use the Export Current View option on the File menu (this is used for any tab view report), or click the Export List button on any of the other dialogs that have a grid-type report. Alternatively you can press Ctrl-F10, which will work for any of the supported reports.

Next you will see the standard file dialog. Just enter the filename and select the location (navigate to the desired folder) and click Save. The file will have the extension ".csv" so it's recognized by other software as a CSV file.

To get the data into your other software, you'll need to locate the appropriate function. This is usually an "Import" function under a "File" menu, but programs can vary.

Technical notes: To ensure that data with commas is imported properly, all fields are enclosed in quotes. Most CSV import functions will remove the quotes properly. Also, if the data itself includes quotes (the double-quote character ("), these will be automatically converted to single-quotes in the CSV file.

Probably 90% of your operations will be done directly from the Rack view. This is the primary display, which shows the status of each site on any given date, typically showing the next 2 weeks. Reservations and open sites are color-coded to indicate their status (weekend dates on open sites are even shaded as a visual clue). Each cell in the grid represents one day of one site. There are several options available to customize the look of the Rack (see Program Options and Settings for explanations), and controls at the top to filter the view.

Reservations are shown as cells filled with the last name of the customer. If the name is too long to fit, it will be truncated with an ellipsis (…) to indicate that it’s not completely visible. One cell will be filled (with the same name in each cell) for each night of the reservation. The program deals in "nights" stays, so although most customers will actually leave the morning after their last night, the cell for the departure morning will not show that customer – it must be available to show the customer staying the following night. Thus if a customer stays for one night, one cell will be filled with that customer’s name.

Moving the mouse cursor over any reservation (without clicking) will show the full last name as well as the first name(s) in a pop-up tip. Double-clicking on a reservation will pop up a Quick-Info window with all of the major details of the reservation, including the dates, status, and customer information, plus linked sites, notes, site preference requests and more. Finally, right-clicking on a reservation will present a menu with all major functions available so that most operations can be done from this view. These functions are covered in the previous section.

Occasionally you will see a cell that is dark blue – this is simply the grid "cursor", indicating the selected cell, and results from clicking on the grid or pressing Alt-G. This selection will be moved if you click on another cell, and will disappear if you right-click on a cell or change to another view. In any case, it’s harmless and not part of the report (it will not show on a printed report).

Pay special attention to conflicting reservations – these are cells that are bright red with yellow text (this is the default colors, but this color can be changed like the others through the Color Key). Although it’s difficult to make a reservation that conflicts with another one through the normal procedures (the program will warn you and not allow it), it’s possible to cause conflicts by manually changing reservation dates in some cases. If you see a conflicting reservation, double-click on the cell to see a Quick-Info window showing the information for both of them. You can edit the first one with the normal right-click commands, but to edit the second one you may have to find it through one of the other views (for instance, Arrivals for that date).

Cells with no customer name are "open" sites. The color may vary depending on whether the day is a weekday or weekend, and whether the site is available on that date (according to season dates or special available/unavailable dates set for the site). Hovering over an empty site won’t show anything, but you can see the site’s description (and double-click to get a Quick-Info window) by hovering over the site name in the row or column header (the gray button-like cells). Double-clicking on an open site will open the New Reservation dialog (the quickest way to make a reservation for a known site and date that’s visible). Right-clicking will pop up a menu with functions for the site, including options to extend or advance preceding/following reservations to this date.

In addition, you may see "No Site:1" (or some other number) in a cell that should otherwise be open. (If the number won’t fit in the cell, you will see the ellipsis and can hover over the cell to see the full number.) This indicates that there are reservations for this date which have not been assigned sites, and this will appear in every open site cell for each date that has unassigned reservations. This is essentially a warning that you should not fill the open sites for that date until the unassigned reservations have been assigned sites, or that you should at least leave enough sites open to satisfy the unassigned reservations. To assign sites to the reservations, you should go to the Unassigned Tab View, where they will be listed. (It can’t be done from the Rack because the reservations aren’t assigned to any particular cell, therefore you can't right-click on any particular unassigned reservation.)

A reminder about double-clicking to make a reservation (or the equivalent New Reservation function from the menu or toolbar) – be aware that this will make a new reservation, even if you select an existing customer from the database. This is not the way to assign sites to reservations that have already been made without site assignments, since the original reservation without a site assigned would still be in the system.

Date range selection was covered in the Common Controls and Settings section above, but the dates on the rack have some special meanings since it’s not a normal table-type report.

You’ll notice that the program starts with both the start and end date set to the current date, but obviously the Rack is showing more than one day. The date range is of primarily importance when the Available Only option or the Show Range option is selected, but the controls can also be used to change the Rack dates shown.

The default date range available in the Rack is determined by the past and future minimum days and maximum days settings (see Program Options and Settings). You can use the date controls to see dates further in the past or future – just change the date in the control to extend the range of the Rack. This won’t necessarily scroll the Rack to the dates selected, especially when selecting the End date – you will still need to scroll the Rack view after selecting a new end date.

If the Available Only option is selected, then the Rack will only show those sites that are available continuously from the Start date to the End date selected. (Options for what is considered "available" are covered in the Program Options and Settings section.) So by default, if you check the Available Only box, it will show all sites that are available today. This is a quick way to see what’s available for a given date range before starting a reservation. Once you know the available sites, you could double-click on one of them to start the reservation process.

If the Show Range option is selected, then the Rack does only show dates in the range selected. This is primarily used when you want to print a Rack view, so that you only print the dates you want. Otherwise it would print all of the rack currently available for scrolling, which is probably a lot more than you want.

The Site Types drop-down will filter the Rack to show only the selected type, or All Site Types. Note that this also affects the Available Only option, in which case only the available sites of the selected type will be shown.

The Reset/Today button is handy for resetting the Rack to its default state after scrolling it or checking availability. This sets the date range back to the default, makes sure that the current day is the first row or column shown, clears the Available Only and Show Range options, and resets the Site Types selection to All Site Types.

The Arrivals view shows all reservations with the First Night in the selected range (defaulting to today, but this is easily changed with the controls). This view is handy for seeing who is due to arrive today. When a camper arrives you can quickly go to this list, verify that they have a reservation, and check them in directly from the list (using the right-click menu). Toward the end of the day, you can refer to this list to see who has not arrived, or perhaps who has arrived but did not get checked into the system. You’ll notice that the Name column (the customer’s last name) will be color-coded according to the reservation status just like the Rack view. This gives an instant indication of their status at a glance, so you can see which reservations have been checked in.

There's a special control at the top, Pending Only, which when selected will limit the list to those who have not yet checked in. This is handy if you have a large number of arrivals for the day, so the list will shrink as you check people in. You could also use this option to create a no-show list of people you need to call at the end of the day for a status update.

There is an option (under the Options button) to include empty sites when sorting by Site. This provides better visual feedback for "empty" sites and is especially useful for walk-around checking, but also makes the report longer.

Note that reservations on the Waiting List can also appear on this report (if this option is set under the Options button). These will be highlighted with * Waiting * in front of the customer name.

You will also see reservations with unassigned sites on this report, which will show "(No Site)" in the Site column.

The Departures view shows all reservations with the Last night in the selected range (defaulting to yesterday and today, adjustable with the controls). This view makes it easy to see who might be leaving today. (Yesterday is shown as well as today, since those whose Last Night is yesterday will likely check out this morning.) You can switch to this view when somebody checks out, quickly find their reservation and check them out of the system using the right-click menu. If most of your customers pre-pay rather than checking out when they leave, you can use this report to get a list of people who should be leaving today, print it out and make the rounds to check to see if they have left as scheduled. You can then check them out to "close out" the reservation.

There is a special control at the top, Pending Only, which when selected will limit the list to those who have not yet checked out. This is handy for shrinking a large list to show who has not yet left the campground, or to show what sites still need to be checked for vacancy on the next rounds. While the Name column is color-coded to show which reservations have been checked out, the Pending Only option is still useful if you are printing in black & white mode, and of course to reduce the length of the list.

There is an option (under the Options button) to include empty sites when sorting by Site. This provides better visual feedback for "empty" sites and is especially useful for walk-around checking, but also makes the report longer.

Note that reservations on the Waiting List can also appear on this report (if this option is set under the Options button). These will be highlighted with * Waiting * in front of the customer name.

The On Site view shows all reservations that occupy sites for dates in the selected range (defaulting to yesterday and today, which shows any customers that may currently be on-site). The report is sorted by the site by default. This view is primarily used as a quick reference to who is currently in the campground (especially with Current Only selected, see below). It’s handy if you need a list for security gate or walk-around purposes, or if someone calls the office looking for a customer. By changing the dates you can see future occupancy, so for instance you could use it to get a list of all campers who will be here on a holiday.

There's a special control at the top, Current Only, which when selected will limit the list to those who are currently checked in (eliminating those who have not yet arrived and those who have already checked out). This will result in a more accurate report of who is actually present.

There is an option (under the Options button) to include empty sites when sorting by Site. This provides better visual feedback for "empty" sites and is especially useful for walk-around checking, but also makes the report longer.

Note that reservations on the Waiting List can also appear on this report (if this option is set under the Options button). These will be highlighted with * Waiting * in front of the customer name.

The Unassigned view shows all reservations that have not been assigned to specific sites. As with the other views you can specify a particular date range. However, this view defaults to a 1-month view (from today to 31 days later) so that you can easily see upcoming reservations that need to be assigned to sites. Their rig information and any special requests (site preferences) are shown to make the task easy. You can assign a site to a reservation by right-clicking on the reservation line and selecting Assign Site (see Working with Reservations for details).

Note that the date range can be applied to either the First Night of reservations (only showing reservations which start in the date range), or to reservations' entire stay (showing any reservations which include the date range). This is an option under the Options button so you can set it either way.

It’s common to have reservations on the Waiting List with unassigned sites, so those can appear on this report as well, if the option is set (see the Options button). These will be highlighted with * Waiting * in front of the customer name.

The Non-Reserved view can show three different types of reservation records that are not actually "reserving" space. These can be:

Cancelled reservations (either you or the customer cancelled a previously pending reservation)

Couldn’t Book reservations (they tried to make a reservation but you were full so they won’t wait).

Waiting List reservations (you didn’t have a place to put them yet but they still want to stay).

Inquiry "reservations" (they just inquired but did not make a reservation).

You can also show "All Not Reserved" to show all three types in one report. Both the color coding and the Status column will indicate which type they are.

Note that the date range can be applied to either the First Night of reservations (only showing reservations which start in the date range), or to reservations' entire stay (showing any reservations which include the date range). This is an option under the Options button so you can set it either way.

By default the display shows only Waiting List reservations, since those still have the potential of being turned into a booked reservation. Like the Unassigned view, this view defaults to a 1-month (31-day) date range so that you can check ahead and call customers if a site opens up. The other types are selected using the drop-down list on the right end of the controls above the grid.

The other types of non-reserved reports are mainly useful for historical purposes (e.g. to see if any reservations have been cancelled for the week, or how many couldn’t be booked). They may also be useful if you want to "un-cancel" a reservation (the customer changed their mind), or if a couldn’t-book customer calls back to see if anything opened up and you can book them now. You should change the status of the original reservation instead of making a new reservation for the same customer (and probably the same dates). This way your statistics for the Unfilled Reservations Report won’t show reservations that were actually filled later.

To un-cancel a reservation, simply select Un-cancel from the right-click menu.

To change a couldn’t-book reservation into a booked reservation, use the Assign Site function from the right-click menu – the couldn’t-book status will automatically be cleared once a site is assigned. If you wish to re-book the reservation without assigning a site, use Reservation Details and simply uncheck the Cannot Book box.

The Payments Due view shows any reservations that might have outstanding payments due, as of the selected date (defaulting to today). Whether payments are due is primarily determined by the Paid-Through Date for reservations, so it's important to make sure that each reservation’s Paid-Through Date accurately reflects the payment status. (This field can be easily set every time a transaction is made and the customer checks in or out.) You can filter it further with the options available through the Options button (see below).

By default the report is sorted by the Paid-Through date of the reservation, so the most-overdue accounts are at the top. If the customer has not made any payments (i.e. their Paid-Through Date is blank), the date shown here will be the reservation’s First Night, and will be shown in parenthesis to indicate that no payments have been made. You might also see "(Deposit)" if they have made a deposit but no further payments, or "(Payment)" if they have made a payment but no Paid-Through date was set. Unlike most other date columns on reports, blank lines don’t separate the different Paid-Through dates. This is because it would usually result in many blank lines, and the date grouping is not important for this report.

The report also shows these special fields:

Reservation Balance and Customer Balance – These are according to the charges and payments applied to the reservation or customer. (Depending on the filtering options, they may have a $0.00 balance even though a payment is due, e.g. for the next month.)

Days Overdue – This is the number of days since the last Paid-Through date (or their First Night, if they have not paid yet).

Unpaid Nights – This is calculated as the number days from the last Paid-Through date (or First Night) to the end of their reservation (not including Blocked dates). Thus this is often larger than the days overdue for extended-stay customers, and smaller than the days overdue in most other cases.

Note that the date selection for this report is a single "Show any due as of" date, rather than a From/To range, since a range doesn’t make sense for this report. Thus changing the date or using the Week/Month/Year buttons can be used to show payments that are coming due in the future.

There's a special Show All With Balances option on this report, which will show any reservations with non-zero balances due (unpaid charges on their transaction history), regardless of their Paid-Through date. Reservations with zero balances will also still be shown if they are shown according to the Options. This is handy to see customers that will owe something in addition to their reservation stay when they check out, or any other case where they haven't paid their full balance even though the reservation has been marked "paid" according to the date.

The Options button has a variety of options for selecting which reservations will be shown in the report, in addition to the list of fields to show. You can select criteria for showing pending, checked-in, and other reservation statuses. This can be based on whether there is a balance due for any status. For pending reservations, you can filter based on how long ago the reservation was made or how soon the reservation starts (in case you have prepayment/deposit requirements). You can also filter by balance due (either Customer or Reservation balance) and whether they have made any payments yet. For checked-in reservations, you can filter on how long it’s been since their last payment (to show long-term residents that require monthly payments, for instance). All of these selections will be kept until you change them, even if the program is shut down.

The Transactions view is different in many ways from the other views. The most obvious difference is that this view shows a list of transactions rather than reservations, and since each reservation is likely to have multiple transactions, a single reservation will result in multiple lines in the transaction list. This view has more filtering options and shows more totals and sub-total information than other views.

Some reservation information is shown for reference and sorting convenience – the last name is color-coded as usual, plus the first names, site, site type, and first night are shown. Also note that some transactions won’t have reservations associated with them, and some won’t even have customers associated with them. This will be the case for unbound transactions, as well as any Expense and Misc. Income transactions that you enter for the business.

The other major feature of this view is that it can be used to generate many different summary reports. This makes it much more powerful than the other views – and much more complex as well. For a better understanding of how to use this report, refer to the Working with Transactions section as well.

One thing to remember is that like the other reports, this is a dynamic report. So whenever transactions are made, they will show up immediately. This is a good thing, unless you are showing many days of transactions (or a summary report) and have a slow computer. Although it will only refresh when the view is visible so it won’t slow down normal operations, it would still be a good idea to reset the view to Details mode for Today (uncheck the Summarize option and click the Today button) after getting the reports you need.

This is the default mode, and is indicated by the Summarize checkbox being unchecked. Each line will show a separate transaction record (with subtotals as appropriate, described below). You can select which fields are displayed through the Options... button (or the separate "Detail Options..." button if your screen resolution allows).

By default, the view shows today’s transactions, sorted by date (and time, since they are all the same date). Since all transaction types are shown, the charges and the payments would balance out to a $0.00 total at the bottom if all charges and payments entered today correspond to each other. This is often not the case, however, since charges are often posted to a reservation on a different day than the payments.

If you prefer to show transactions by the date of their reservation (to make it easy to check for reservation charges and payments balancing out), you can change this in the Filters dialog. Click the More Filters… button in the control area, and check the option to Use Reservation date instead of transaction date. Now the transactions will be grouped by the date (First Night) of the reservation, and the total and subtotals (if any) should balance out for any reservations that are paid in full.

As with other reports, you can select the start and end date for the report. (If you’re using the option mentioned above to Use Reservation Date, then the date range filtering will likewise apply to reservation dates rather than transaction dates.) Since you're likely to have many more transactions in a day than reservations (and you should have no transactions for future dates), there are no Week/Month/Year buttons. To get monthly and yearly reports, see the Summary Reports section coming up later.

You can sort the detail transaction list many ways by clicking on the column header as in other reports. You will notice that sorting by some fields will result in groupings with sub-total lines between each group. This provides a quick way to get mini-summaries for Transaction Types, Categories, Pay Methods, Discounts, Site Type, and Operator. The sub-totals for each group can be useful for some daily accounting tasks – sort by Payment Method to get the total receipts for cash, Visa, Discover, etc., or sort by Type to get the total Payments (receipts), Tax charged, refunds, etc.

Some of the totals and subtotals need to be explained further. In addition to the total number of transactions at the bottom of the list (and subtotals after each group), you will see values under the Qty, Each, and Total columns.

The Qty total is self-explanatory, although not terribly meaningful unless the list is sorted by Category since otherwise the quantities for days rent, supplies, propane and so forth would be mixed together. (Depending on how your categories are defined, some Qty totals may not be useful in any case.)

The totals under the Total column would seem obvious, but keep in mind that some transaction amounts are added to the total while others are subtracted, even though the individual transactions almost always show a positive amount. For instance, any "Charge" transactions, including Taxes, are considered negative values, and receipts like Payments and Deposits are positive. Expenses are negative, Misc. Income is positive, Refunds are negative, and so forth according to whether the amount would be a credit or debit to the campground. (Also note that when viewing Reservation balances and printing reservation receipts, these values are reversed since they are from the customer’s perspective – charges are positive outstanding balances, while payments subtract from their balance.)

As if this wasn’t confusing enough, you have the option to show all totals as positive for summary reports – more on that later, since it doesn’t affect the Detail view.

Finally, there are the totals in the Each column. These are calculated as an average – the Total divided by the Qty. Obviously these values only make sense in the cases where Qty makes sense, and when the transactions are sorted/grouped by something like Category or Type which will separate the charges from the receipts.

There are many filtering possibilities with the transaction reports. The most common ones, Transaction Type and Category, are available as drop-down lists in the controls area. The others are available on the Filters dialog, accessed through the More Filters… button. As with the Site Types filtering in other reports, when selecting a filter you are choosing to see only those records (transactions) of that type or category. Note that if you see "-----------" in one of the drop-down lists, it means that a more complex filter has been defined from the filters dialog, which can’t be shown in the drop-down list.

For Categories, you can select a single category or "All Categories" from the drop-down list, or select any number of categories from the Filters dialog. Keep in mind that Charge type transactions are about the only ones that will have your defined categories, since other types like Payments have their own "payment" category. Thus if you select the "Propane" category, you will see the charges for propane, but not the taxes or payments that are probably associated with it. (This is generally what you would want to see in any case.)

For Transaction Types, you can choose a single transaction type, All Transaction Types, or one of two special groupings from the drop-down list – All Receipts or All Charges. More specific filtering can be done through the Filters dialog.

From the Filters dialog, you can have additional filtering for Payment Methods, Discounts Used, Operators, and Site Types. Each of these is presented as a multiple-selection list box. This means that you can select a single item in the list (click on it), or you can select any number of items at once (hold the Ctrl key down when you click on each item). Note that you can also de-select an item with Ctrl-click also. To disable filtering for a particular field, you can either select all of the items the list or de-select all items.

The flexibility of filtering any or all of thee fields can be useful for customized reports, but you will need to be familiar with the way transactions are defined to avoid mistakes. For instance, if you try to filter by the Cash payment method and the Good Sam discount, your report will be empty because payment methods only appear in Payment transactions and discounts only appear in Charge & Discount transactions – so no transactions would meet both filter criteria.

The Reset All button is a handy way to clear all of the lists, resetting to "no" filtering.

You can also set the dates in the Filter dialog. While the dates here are the same as the ones in the view controls, there are four helper buttons that can be handy – Month-to-Date, Last Month, Year-to-Date and Last Year. These simply calculate the appropriate start and end date for the From and To date fields – you will see the dates change as you click on the buttons.

All of the summary financial reports available in Campground Master are generated from the Transactions view. You can go to the Summary Report Options dialog by checking Summarize and then using the Options… button (or the separate "Summary Options..." button if your screen resolution allows it), for full report control and some pre-defined Quick Reports.

Summary reports are basically a condensation of the detail reports to just the group subtotals in one dimension, with the ability to show multiple days, months, or years in the other dimension. So summary reports are shown as a grid with dates across the top and group summaries (Types, Categories, Pay Methods, etc.) in each row.

You can also flip this orientation (like flipping the Rack view), so dates are in rows and groups in columns. This can be done either through the Options dialog or from the right-click menu. Another option that can result in nicer looking reports is the Grid Lines option in the right-click menu. Turning off grid lines and printing in color to show the shaded "total" rows and columns (Print Black & White option turned off) will result in a very professional-looking report.

You have all of the same filtering options for Summary reports as you do for Detail reports, through the Filters dialog, so you can refer to the previous section for filtering information.

You can generate a quick and simple summary using just the control area in the Transaction view. Select a date range and a Type and/or Category filter as needed, click on a header to sort by one of the grouping fields (Type, Category, Pay Method, etc.), and click the Summarize checkbox. The resulting summary report will group by the field that you sorted and the dates in the range you selected, showing one row for each day and one column for each Type/Category/etc. Note: if there are more than 10 days in the date range, the orientation will default to dates in columns. If you prefer a different orientation, right-click anywhere on the grid and select "Flip Orientation". You can then print the report with the Print icon on the toolbar.

For more control over the summary report, click the Options… button in the control area (or the Summary Options... button if present), making sure the Summarize checkbox is checked first. The top area of the Options dialog allows you to select the grouping method (Select one of the fields, or None to show only one total instead of group totals) and the Summarize period (Daily, Monthly, Yearly or none). Note that selecting None for both grouping and summarize period will result in a single total value – not terribly useful for a report!

Keep in mind that the date range selected in the filter (or tab view controls) takes precedence over the Summarize period. So for example if you summarize Monthly and selected the date range of 4/1/2001 to 5/1/2001, it will show April and May month summaries in the report but will be reporting for only one day in May due to the 5/1/2001 ending date. This could result in a misleading report.

There are some other options you can select for the report, plus a button that opens the Filter dialog (this is same as selecting More Filters... from the control area in the tab view).

The Hide items with zero totals option is useful for reports such as category reports – only the categories (or other groups) will be shown that have non-zero totals, so the report is smaller. Of course if you’re grouping by Operator, for instance to see if the charges and payments balance out, then you would not want to hide the zero balances – the zeros are what you want to see.

The Show all totals as positive values option is useful for reports that would normally show negative values, such as a Tax category report. (Since taxes are charges to the customer, they are considered a negative amount). This will create a cleaner-looking report.

From the Options dialog you can select one of the Quick-reports. These are predefined sets of filtering and grouping for some common reports. You should first select a Summarize period and a date range (from the Filter dialog or in the control area of the tab view), since the Quick-report selections don’t affect these, and then click the appropriate Quick-Report button.

Once a Quick-report is generated, you are free to change the filter or options if you like. The Quick-report buttons don’t actually change to a particular report mode, they are just a convenience that sets the filters and groupings for you when you click the button, to generate a particular type of report.

Setting up the reports the way you like them can be a chore, and can result in accounting inconsistencies if you don’t use the same settings each time. To avoid this, you can save the settings once you have them the way you like, and call up the same settings every time. There is no limit to the number of different reports you can memorize.

To memorize a report, open the Options dialog once you have the settings (filter, groupings, summarize period, orientation and other options) the way you like. (Note that every setting in the Filters and Options dialogs will be saved to a memorized report except the dates – obviously you would want to use different dates each time you run the report.) Click the Save Report button, and you will be asked for a name for the report. You can make this name as long and detailed as you like, but try to keep it small enough to fit in the Memorized Reports list on the dialog. Click OK and the report settings will be memorized under that name. You can also delete reports as needed by selecting the report name and clicking the Delete button.

To recall a memorized report, simply open the Options dialog, click on the name of the Memorized report you want, and click Load Report. (Alternatively you can just double-click on the report name.) The settings will automatically change to the saved settings (except the dates, as mentioned above). Then click OK to generate the report, or you can click on Filter… to select a date range (You can also select the date range from the controls area on the tab view, but the Filter dialog has the handy buttons for Month-to-Date, etc. that you might prefer to use.)

If you’ve read through the previous sections, you already know many of the ways to work with reservations to create them, check them in, and other functions accessed directly from the Rack and other tab views. This section will cover in detail every reservation function how it is performed. It will also explain the various reservation fields.

The way to start a reservation (or at least the quickest way) will vary depending on the circumstances. For instance, if you’re entering a reservation for a walk-in customer and you have the Rack view showing, the quickest method would be to double-click on the cell for today, on the desired open site. That instantly sets the site and the start date for the reservation, saving two steps. If you are taking a reservation on the phone for some time in the future, the quickest way is probably to click on phone icon on the toolbar (New Reservation).

If you prefer getting all of the customer’s information first, it may be easier to use the Add New Customer function (faces icon), enter the customer information, and then click New Reservation on the Customer Details dialog. Or if you’re making a returning reservation for a customer that’s leaving today, you can flip to the Departures tab, right-click on the customer’s name and select New Reservation for this customer so the customer information is already filled in.

Here’s a complete list of ways you can start a new reservation:

- From the file menu, select Reservations | Add New Reservation. (Alt-R, A from the keyboard.)

- From a Customer Details dialog, click the New Reservation button.

- Click on the New Reservation (phone) icon on the toolbar.

- Double-click on an empty cell in the Rack (the site and start date are automatically filled in).

- Right-click on a customer in any of the tab views, select New Reservation for this customer

(the customer information is automatically filled in).

Two other functions can result in new reservations being created, but are used in special cases:

- Right-click one a reservation in the Rack, and select Add Concurrent (Linked) Reservations.

- Right-click one a reservation in the Rack, and select Split Reservation at this date.

The last two options above are covered later in Advanced Changes. In the other four cases, a New Reservation dialog will be opened where you finish entering the reservation details. This dialog has entry fields for the basic reservation information, plus a miniature version of the Rack view. This miniature rack view can be used to select a site, and can be filtered by site type, site preferences, and available sites for the desired dates.

The first thing to do is verify the first and last night of the stay. The first night may already be set, depending on how you started the reservation. In this case, the mouse cursor will automatically be placed in the Nights field, with the number 1 highlighted. (To change the number of nights, all you need to do is type the new number, and the 1 will be replaced with the new number.) Otherwise, you will want to select the date for the First Night, and then either select the date for the Last Night or enter the number of nights – when one of these two fields is changed, the other one automatically adjusts to match.

If you have reservations that occur on certain days of the week, for instance if customers commonly reserve a site for every weekend for several months in a row, then you may want to enable the "weekdays" fields for reservations (see Define Data Fields under the Maintenance menu). If these are enabled, then you will be able to select the specific days of the week to reserve, instead of making a separate reservation for every weekend.

If these are enabled, you will see a series of checkboxes, with S, M, T, etc. above them. Just select which days to apply. Note that it may default to having none selected, which is the same as if all are selected so you don't need to select them all each time.

Note that if these fields are enabled, it will slow down some processes like updating the Rack view, so only use them if this is a common occurrence.

If you don’t want to assign a site at this time, or if you started by double-clicking on the rack so that a site is already selected, then you can skip to the Customer Information now.

If you know beforehand what site you will use, you can also use the Quick-Pick list to select a site – just click on Quick-Pick, scroll the list if necessary, and select a site. It will automatically be used and filled in to the mini-rack, and you can continue to the Customer Information.

If you need to find a suitable site for this reservation, you first need to verify that you have a vacancy for the nights selected. You can do this quickly by checking the box Show Available. Any sites with existing reservations for the selected nights will be eliminated from the mini-Rack view. (The specific sites filtered out follow the same rules as for the Available Only option on the Rack view -- see Program Options and Settings for details). If you find that you almost always check the Show Available box, you can save time by making this the default for new reservations. This setting is in the main menu under View | Options | Rack.

If you’re familiar enough with your campground’s sites to know which ones are suitable for the customer, you can immediately select one of the sites to use (see below) and move on. Otherwise, you may want to further filter the list by selecting a Site Type from the drop-down list, or by clicking on More Site Preferences to enter a detailed list of the customer’s needs. Preferences include things like as sewer, cable, rig length, waterfront, or any other attributes you have defined (see the Maintenance section for details on defining preferences).

The Site Preferences dialog shows a list of attributes that a site can have. For each attribute, there are three possible selection methods – a drop-down list, a value, or a Must Have/Must Not Have selection. Note first that any attribute which is blank (showing nothing next to the name) means that the customer doesn’t care about that attribute, so it is not checked against the sites. The list should start with all blanks, unless you have already chosen a Site Type from the reservation dialog (that’s actually one of the attributes).

If you select a value from one of the drop-down lists, for instance the Site Type, Site Class, Pad Type, or Site Facing, then you will be limiting the available sites to those that match that attribute exactly (this is one reason to define the pick lists for these attributes carefully).

If you enter a value for an attribute (for instance the Rig Length, Site Length, or Site Width), then any site with that value or greater will be shown.

The other types of attributes, such as 50A, Phone, and Handicapped Access, can be either "Must Have" or "Must Not Have" (or blank). Note that when the attribute is blank there is a check box that’s gray, meaning no selection. If you click it once, it will change to Must Have, and the box will be checked. If you click it again, it will change to Must Not Have, and the box will be white but unchecked. Finally, if you click on it a 3rd time, it will go back to the blank (gray) state.

After making your preference selections you can Save them, or if you change your mind you can click Cancel and none of the changes will be saved. Once they are saved, the mini-rack on the reservation dialog will remove any sites that don’t fit the preferences criteria (preferences will filter the rack whether Show Available is checked or not, since Show Available only filters out sites with existing reservations).

Note that these preferences will stay with the reservation. They will show up on the reservation’s Quick-Info window, and will appear in the Requests column of some of the tab views. Site preferences are especially useful when making unassigned reservations (a reservation with no site assignment), as a way to remember what attributes the customer asked for.

By now you should be able to see what sites are available for the selected dates on the mini-rack view. To select a site, just click on an empty cell in the rack for that site, and then click the Add Selection(s) button. Alternatively, you can simply double-click on an empty cell for that site, just like on the main Rack view. That site’s cells for each of the reservation dates should immediately fill in, with the word <new> in red-on-yellow.

If any of the dates conflict with other reservations, they will be shown with asterisks (***) in yellow-on–red. You won’t be able to complete the reservation with conflicts, so you need to adjust the dates or pick a new site before continuing.

If you’re booking a group under a single name, or if you need to reserve an additional site for the same person (for example a trailer storage spot), you can reserve multiple sites at once. You can add additional sites to a reservation by selecting another site in the rack and clicking Add Selections(s) again, etc. Each site selected will show in the Site(s) Selected field, in addition to being shown as <new> on the rack. If you have a lot of sites to select, you can do it easily using Ctrl-click on each one (select multiple individual sites), or click on the first one and Shift-click on the last one to select a whole range of sites. If you need to start over, use the Clear Sites button to clear all selected sites.

Clarification – although this is referred to as "adding additional sites to a reservation", remember that technically each reservation record can only have one site assigned to it. When you select more than one site, it will actually create multiple reservation records. Each of these reservations will be identical except for the site assignment, and they will be linked together (also called concurrent reservations). This linked status will be tracked whenever you make other reservation changes or operations like checking in and out, so they stay synchronized and act like a single reservation.

Here’s a quick tip – If you have not yet indicated a start date (for instance if you started from the Phone icon), you can select the date and site at the same time, similar to double-clicking on the Rack View. Just go straight to the mini-rack and select a site on the desired start date. In fact, you can select the entire date range right on the mini-rack – drag the mouse to highlight all of the cells needed (e.g. 3 cells for 3 nights, starting on the appropriate night) and click Add Selection(s). The date range will change to the range of cells selected on the rack. Be careful with this, thought, since any subsequent multi-date cell selection will change the dates again to the newly selected cell dates. Only single-cell selections will leave the dates alone once they are set.

An extra preference you can set for the reservation, which is a reservation status rather than a site attribute, is the Don’t Move option. If you want to make sure that this reservation is not moved to another site (e.g. to make room for someone else), check this box. This will be flagged as such and the Assign Site functions will be disabled for this reservation (unless of course the Don’t Move option is manually unchecked again).

This flag can be set for any kind of group reservations you like. It does not affect anything except the color coding of the reservation on the Rack, etc., so you can use it whenever you want such an indication.

Once the site selection is taken care of, you’re ready to either select a returning customer or enter the new customer information. No reservation can be made without at least a customer last name. (The minimum reservation has a first night, last night, and customer last name.)

Either way, note that some of the information in the Customer area will come from (or become part of) the Customer record as well as stored with the Reservation record. This includes the Notes and the number of Adults, Children, Pets, Extra Vehicles and Extra Trailers. This apparent duplication is actually necessary so that it can be changed for each reservation they make (for instance, the number of children tends to change over time). When an existing customer is used, the information is automatically filled in from the customer’s record. Any changes you make to the information (including the name, address, and phone) will be saved back to the customer’s record, whether it’s an existing customer or a new one.

Also note the Customer Details button. You can use this at any time, to enter or edit other customer information such as their vehicle information, driver’s license, discount clubs, etc. You can also view their previous reservation history (for instance to see what sites they used before, or to verify an outstanding credit balance from a prior stay) and their transaction history. The amount of customer information you keep track of is up to you, but we believe that the more information you have the better prepared you will be to handle emergencies.

If reserving for a returning customer that you have in the customer database, you don’t have to enter the information again. You will use the Find Customer function to select an existing customer from the database.

There are two ways to do this…

The quickest way is to enter a portion of their last name in the Last Name field (one letter is enough, but the more letters you enter the better it will work, as long as it’s correct). Then click the Find Customer button (or press Alt-F). Any customers with last names starting with those letters will be displayed. The first one in the list will be selected. To select a different one, you can click on it or use the arrow keys to move down the list. Once the desired customer is selected, just press Enter (or click Use). The Find Customer dialog will then close and the customer’s information will be copied to the New Reservation dialog, including the Notes, and the How-found field will be changed to "Return visit" automatically. If you selected the wrong customer by mistake, you can go back to Find Customer and select a new one (any changes made to the customer fields here in the meantime will not be saved).

The other method is to go straight to Find Customer without entering a portion of the name, and then search the list using the available options. There are various ways to search for customers (address, phone, first name, etc.), so this can be used even if you don’t know their last name. For more information, see the section Working with Customers.

It’s important to know that the customer notes will be copied to the reservation’s Notes field (and shown here for reference), but future changes to the customer’s Notes or the reservation’s Notes will not automatically be copied back and forth. This is so that you can keep specific notes for the customer that don’t necessarily apply to the past reservations (e.g. "don’t put next to the dump next time"), and likewise you can make notes to the reservation that don’t stay with the customer (e.g. "cancelled due to flood").

If this is a new customer, simply enter the information you know. Starting with the Last Name, you can use Tab to jump to each field in a logical order. Note that the Address 1 and Address 2 are typically used for addresses that require additional lines, rather than 2 separate addresses. This would be important if you plan to print mailing labels, for instance. If you want to store a second address for the customer, you can use the Notes field.

Once you’ve entered some customer information, you can use the Customer Details… button to enter further details as explained above. It’s a good idea to have their rig and vehicle information if you can get it, just in case you need it for authorities (e.g. to find them in an emergency, or if they are reported missing). You can also record their discount club information here for future reference.

Since you did not use Find Customer, a new record will be created for this customer when you complete the reservation. However if you abort the reservation (with the Cancel button), the customer information you entered will not be saved. If you want to enter customer information without a reservation (such as entering your old customer records), you should use the Customers | Add a New Customer from the main menu, or Customer Details from the menu, or the Customers toolbar icon.

At this point, you have several choices. In most cases, if you’re making a simple future reservation, you can click Done if you have a site selected successfully or if you want it booked without an assigned site.

If this is just an inquiry by a potential customer but you want to record the information for reporting purposes (or in case the customer calls back to make the reservation), click the Inquiry button. The information will be saved but it will not reserve the site. If they do call back to make the reservation, you can find them on the Non-Reserved tab view (or through the Find Reservations function), go to the Reservation Details dialog, and change the status from Inquiry to Pending (or Confirmed or Guaranteed).

If the customer did want to stay but you could not find a suitable vacant site, then you should use either the Waiting List button or Cannot Book button, depending on whether the customer wants to be notified if something becomes available. It’s recommended that you use one of these rather than just canceling the reservation without saving it, so that you have some useful statistics later on. Also, if they call back later and you do have an opening at that time, then you already have their information and can re-activate the reservation easily (see the Non-Reserved tab view).

The other option, which will be used most often, is to click the Continue to details and fees… button, which will close this dialog (saving the reservation the same as if Done was used) and open the Reservation Details dialog automatically. From there you can set extra flags (Group, Extended Stay, Free Site, etc.) or perform further actions – Confirm or Guarantee the reservation, add charges or a deposit transaction, add guests to the reservation, or check it in right away.

You can check in a reservation from the right-click menu on the tab views, or from the Reservation Details dialog by clicking on the Checked In check box. A checked-in reservation is treated differently in many ways, most of which were already covered in the Dynamic Interactive Reports section.

One thing to note about color coding for a checked-in reservation is that once it’s checked in, other status flags can affect its color so that a checked-in reservation can appear in several different colors. The most important one is whether it’s paid or not – the text will be red on the Rack for any dates that have not been paid for. (Like other colors, this can be changed through the Color Key). Also, a different background color will be used for Extended Stay, Group, and Free (comp) reservations once they are checked in.

Normally you will be checking in a reservation with today as the First Night date. If the reservation’s First Night is not today, a warning message will give you the choice of aborting the check-in, checking it in and changing it to start today, or checking it in with the original start date. Be careful how you answer this, or you could change the start date by accident and then have to change it back to what it was (if you remember what it was!) These warnings typically happen when initially entering reservations for people that are already here when you start using the software, and later if you forget to check someone in and do it on a later date. However if someone arrives earlier or later than their planned reservation, you will get this warning if you don’t change their start date before checking them in. (Actually it’s a nice feature to have the software offer to change the date automatically, which saves a step -- just be sure to read the warnings carefully.)

Now, once you’ve confirmed that you want to check in the reservation, the Transactions dialog will appear so you can enter charges, payment, etc. and print a receipt. (This is an option that can be disabled -- if you prefer not to see the Transactions dialog automatically every time you do a check in, you can turn it off in View | Options | Prompts.) Note that if you click Cancel on the Transactions dialog, it does not cancel the check-in, only the transactions.

If you checked in a reservation by mistake and want to undo the check-in, go to the Reservation Details dialog and click the Checked In checkbox, then confirm the undo.

You can check out a reservation from the right-click menu on the tab views, or from the Reservation Details dialog by clicking on the Checked Out check box. A checked-out reservation is treated differently in several ways, most of which were already covered in the Dynamic Interactive Reports section. On the tab views, a checked-out reservation is always the same color, typically a dark gray.

Normally you will check out a reservation on its Last Night date or the day after. If either one of these is the case, you will notice that the right-click menu on the tab views will show "Check Out (Today)" or "Check Out (Yesterday)" as appropriate. That’s a clue that today or yesterday will automatically be assumed when you perform the check out. If this is not correct, you will need to adjust the Last Night to be correct first, and then check them out. Note that this assumption is also true if checking out from the Reservation Details dialog, but there is no Today/Yesterday indication – it’s up to you to verify that the Last Night is correct.

If the Last Night is not yesterday or today, you will get a warning that they are not scheduled to leave yet, or that they were scheduled to leave earlier. If their Last Night is in the future, your only options are to cancel the check-out (presumably because it was a mistake) or make yesterday their last night. In other words, you can’t actually say that they left in the future. However if their Last Night is in the past, you are given the choices similar to Check In – abort, check out with yesterday’s date, or check out without changing the Last Night. Therefore if you forget to check out some old reservations, you can do it later and not affect their departure date. Of course if they really are just leaving, you can have it automatically change the Last Night to reflect that. As with Check Ins, it’s a good idea to read all warnings carefully.

Now, once you’ve confirmed the check-out, the Transaction dialog will appear. (This is an option that can be disabled -- if you prefer not to see the Transactions dialog automatically every time you do a check out, you can turn it off in View | Options | Prompts.) You can verify that their balance has been paid and make adjustments or payments as needed, and print out a new receipt if they need one.

(You also have the chance to adjust the Last Night, just in case none of the previous choices were quite correct.)

If you cancel a reservation by mistake (or if they change their mind and come back the same day), you can undo the check-out through the Reservation Details dialog. Just click on the Checked Out box and confirm the prompt. (You can then go into Transactions and make additions, etc.)

Most simple changes to a reservation can be done from the Rack view – you can change the first and last nights, block dates, change sites, confirm, guarantee, and cancel a reservation all from the right-click menu on the Rack. An appropriate confirmation dialog will appear for any change. You can also perform any of these through the Reservation Details dialog.

Any time changes are made to a reservation that is linked to other reservations (a concurrent reservation, such as groups), you will be prompted with an option to synchronize the reservation changes. This means that it will make the same changes to all of the linked reservations, so they will all keep identical dates and status. It’s very important to answer this correctly, since making the wrong choice can end up with a mess that’s time-consuming to straighten out.

Answering No (to not keep them synchronized) will make the changes only to the one reservation, but more importantly it will make this reservation a stand-alone reservation, no longer linked to the other(s). If this is done by mistake, the only recourse is to delete this reservation and add a new concurrent reservation to the rest of the group.

You will usually want to answer Yes to keep them synchronized, but there are some cases where you might want to unlink them on purpose. For instance if one person in the party leaves early or stays later, you can separate him from the group (Keep in mind that you can’t change the customer information for the reservation, though.) Another example is if you have two reservations linked for one person, as in the trailer storage example, and you need to end one of them prematurely (e.g. he sells the trailer). The proper procedure in this case would be to Split the reservation on the date you want to cancel one of them, and tell it not to keep them synchronized. The first half of the split would remain linked, but the second half would be separated so you can cancel one of them.

You can change the first and last dates of a reservation at any time, as well as the Blocked date. (Exception -- the First Night cannot be changed if a reservation is checked in, and none of the dates can be changed if the reservation is checked out).

The Blocked date allows you to block a site for extra days after a reservation’s official Last Night, in case the customer wants to stay longer. This can be at your discretion to allow some slack for typical stay-overs, or by customer request. Many of the dialogs (New Reservation, Change Site, Transactions, etc.) allow date changes directly, but most changes can be made easily on the Rack view itself. See the Rack section for command details.

When changing the first night, last night, or blocked dates from the Rack view, you will get a simple confirmation so you can accept or abort the change. Not much can go wrong here, since only "valid" options will be available when right-clicking on the Rack.

When changing the dates from the Reservation Details dialog, you are able to manually change any of the dates to any date you like, whether it makes "sense" or not (for instance, you can change the start date of a reservation that’s already checked in). However, some validation will be done when you try to save the reservation changes to avoid problems like reversed dates and conflicting reservations.

You can change the site assignment from the right-click menu in the tab view, or from the Assign or Change Site… button on the Reservation Details dialog.

When changing the site or assigning a site to an unassigned reservation, a dialog just like the New Reservation dialog will be used so you can do all of the same site preferences and vacancy checks to find a new site. Everything else will be filled in, so just click the Done button when finished selecting the new site.

Note that when changing a site, only one site can be selected for the reservation. To add additional sites you will need to use the Add Concurrent (Linked) Reservations option, which is only available from the right-click menu on the tab views.

A cancelled reservation is not deleted from the system, it simply has a Cancelled flag set so that it will not show up on certain reports. You can cancel a reservation using the Cancel option on the right-click menus in the tab views, or you can click on the Cancelled checkbox on a Reservation Details dialog.

When making a cancellation, you will have a chance to enter notes about the cancellation (it’s always a good idea to note who requested the cancellation and why, so you have some proof in case they forget that they cancelled it). The notes will be part of the reservation’s Notes field, so if notes already exist you can add the cancellation notes to the end of the existing notes. Also remember that the date, time, and operator making the cancellation will be recorded, which you can see on the Reservation Details dialog.

After entering any notes, the Transaction dialog will appear so that you can check the transactions for any refund needed or delete any charges for the reservation, or charge a cancellation fee. Don’t leave unpaid charges on a cancelled reservation or else your reports will be inaccurate, showing charges that were never paid. When canceling a reservation, the account should be "balanced out" so that the balance due is $0.00.

You can "un-cancel" a reservation if a cancellation is done by mistake, or if the customer changes their mind. You can do this from the right-click menus or by clicking on the Cancelled checkbox in the Reservation Details dialog (which would already be checked). A simple confirmation will be shown, at which point you simply click Yes to undo the cancellation.

To the Campground Master software, a confirmed reservation is simply a reservation with the Confirmed flag set. This flag is used to set the status color on the tab views, and optionally affect the showing of "available" reservations according to the Rack options (see Program Options and Settings). For your campground, you may have no specific rules for requiring confirmations, so the use of this flag is at your discretion. (You could even use it for something totally different which you want to see coded as a different color on the tab views, although this could be confusing since the wording for the flag cannot be changed on the menus or dialogs.)

For now we’ll assume that it means that a customer has confirmed their stay, so its confidence is greater than a mere "pending" reservation. This could be on a new reservation if it’s close enough to the time of their stay, or done later on a reservation made months in advance. You can mark a reservation as "confirmed" from the right-click menu on the tab views, or from the Reservation Details dialog by clicking on the Confirmed check box. Note that the Confirm option will not be available on the right-click dialog if the reservation is already confirmed or if it has been Guaranteed (which is presumed to be a higher level of confidence than Confirmed). Of course it also won’t be available if the reservation has already been checked in or checked out.

A simple prompt will ask you to confirm the change. If you are supporting the Estimated Arrival Time field, you may also want to set this when confirming the reservation. This field is only available on the Reservation Details dialog.

If you want to undo a confirmation (to revert the reservation back to a pending state), open the Reservation Details dialog and check the Pending box (on uncheck the Confirmed box).

Like Confirmations, a guarantee is basically a flag in the reservation that affects the color coding in the tab views and may have an affect on showing "available" reservations (according to Rack options). In general it’s assumed to mean that the customer has provided a deposit or credit card information to guarantee the reservation, giving it greater confidence. You can mark a reservation as "guaranteed" from the right-click menu on the tab views, or from the Reservation Details dialog by clicking on the Guaranteed check box.

In addition to the flag, there is a special field for the guarantee information (typically the credit card information, but it can be anything you want). When you guarantee a reservation, a dialog will appear for you to enter this information. If the customer has previously guaranteed a reservation, that information will be shown here automatically (the guarantee information is actually stored with the customer, not the reservation). You can leave it as is or edit it as needed. While this information is shown on the Reservation Details dialog for reference, it cannot be edited there since it’s actually customer information. To edit the information after making the guarantee, you need to go to Customer Details…, or use Customer Details from the menus.

Once you have entered the guarantee information (if required), you also have the option to open the Transactions dialog so you can enter a deposit if you need to, or you can simply Save the information.

If you want to undo a guarantee (to revert the reservation back to just pending or confirmed), open the Reservation Details dialog and check the Pending box (or uncheck the Guaranteed box). You will be asked to confirm the change.

Transactions and the Transactions dialog have been mentioned casually many times. The section Working with Transactions covers transactions in depth, so this section will just cover the basics of how transactions can be entered for reservations.

Any time a function is performed on a reservation that might result in additional charges or payments, the Transaction Dialog will be used to enter new transactions. It also shows previous transactions for review or editing. In addition to managing transactions, you can set the Paid-Through date and even change the reservation dates directly from this dialog. If necessary, you can use the Reservation Details button to view or edit any reservation or customer details.

The other function of this dialog is to print a receipt. You can print a receipt with all transactions, or just the new ones added since you opened this dialog.

You can bring up the Transactions dialog at any time from Transactions the right-click menu of tab views, or from New / Edit Transactions… on the Reservation Details dialog. You can also select Transactions | Add New Transactions on the main menu or use the cash register toolbar icon, but this is much more difficult because it will open the generic transaction dialog, from which you’ll need to Find Reservation first, then Enter New Transactions for the above Reservation.

This function is only available from the right-click menu on the Rack view. The typical reasons to split a reservation include moving a customer to a different site in the middle of their stay, or adding a gap in the reservation when the customer leaves and will come back shortly.

Either way, you are actually creating an additional reservation. The Split function simplifies the process by copying all of the details to the new reservation automatically, and adjusting the dates so that the original reservation ends early (on the day before the split) and the new reservation starts the next day (the day of the split). Note that a spit must be done in the normal range of the reservation, it can’t be done in a Blocked date range. If you have other concurrent reservations linked to this one then they will also be split (assuming you confirm the prompt to synchronize the changes), resulting in two sets of linked reservations.

If the split date is today or in the future, the second half will not be checked in yet (it will show a Pending status), even if the original reservation was checked in. If the split date is in the past, then both halves will keep the checked-in status (assuming it is checked in now). If both halves are the same status after the split, it will still appear like a continuous reservation on the Rack, since it’s still all one color and the same name. If you lose track of the split, you can double-click on the reservation to see the First and Last dates, so you can tell which of the two reservations you’re clicking on. (Since it’s simply two separate reservations now as far as the software is concerned, there is no indication to show that it’s a "split".)

After splitting the reservation, you can make the necessary changes to the new reservation just like any other reservation (change the start date, change the site, etc.).

Also note that transactions are not carried over in the split, since they can only be related to one reservation. If the original reservation had an outstanding balance, you may want to adjust its transactions to balance out to the day of the split and move the appropriate charges to the new reservation.

However, the Paid-Through date is automatically adjusted appropriately. If the original reservation was paid through the split date or later, that date will carry over to the new reservation and the old reservation will show that it’s paid through its new last date. If the original reservation was not paid through the split date, then the new reservation will not have a paid-through date (none of it has been paid).

This function is only available from the right-click menu on the Rack view – start by right-clicking on the reservation you want to add the additional site(s) to. (Concurrent reservations also result from selecting multiple sites when making the original reservation.) The functionality is similar to having multiple sites in one reservation, such as for groups registered under one name (e.g. caravans registered by the wagon master), or for one customer taking two or more "sites" (e.g. a trailer storage site or boat dock in addition to the RV site).

When this function is selected, you will see a dialog that looks (and is) just like the New Reservation dialog. All reservation information will be filled in (dates, customer information, etc.). All you need to do is select the additional sites from the mini-rack (or with Quick-Pick). All of the same site preference filtering and vacancy-checking functions are available. Note that the Waiting List, Cannot Book and Continue to Details… buttons are disabled for concurrent reservations. The additional reservations must have the same status as the original, so for instance if the original reservation was on the waiting list, the concurrent one will be too.

There is one catch to be aware of when selecting a site – if you select site preferences or a Site Type here, those will be copied to all of the linked reservations. This is not a technical problem, but can cause confusion. For instance if you’re adding a boat dock reservation and select Boat Dock from the Site Types to see the list of boat docks, you will see "boat dock" listed in the Requests column of the original reservation on some of the tab views, even for the RV site. If you want to avoid this, you can simply clear out the Site Type and any other preferences after selecting the additional sites, before clicking Done.

Once sites are linked in this way, you will want to synchronize all changes (copy changes to all of the linked reservations). So whenever you make a change to the reservation (excluding transactions, which can only be attached to a single reservation), you will be prompted to synchronize the reservations. See the Synchronizing Linked Reservations section for more details.

Concurrent reservations are listed on some of the dialogs for reference, such as the Transactions dialog and the Reservation Details dialog. However the list may be truncated if more than 4 or 5 are linked. You will also see a list of linked reservations whenever you double-click on a tabbed view to see the reservation Quick-Info.

This is the main dialog for editing everything about a reservation. While most common changes can be done outside this dialog (with right-click functions, for instance), some functions are only available here and nowhere else. This dialog also has a number of information fields that are not editable, such as the time, date, and operator who made the reservation, checked it in, checked it out, or cancelled it.

From this dialog you can open further dialogs to see Customer Details or Transaction History, and to add New Transactions, Manage Guests, Assign or Change the Site, or edit Site Preferences. You can also Print a reservation record or Delete the reservation completely (if you’re logged in as an Administrator), or Find a reservation if you’re browsing from the main menu (see the Find Reservation Dialog below).

Note that the Cancel button on this dialog does not cancel the reservation! It only cancels any changes you have made to the fields, so you can avoid making changes by mistake. If you’re just looking at the reservation and have not planned to make changes, you should use Cancel just to make sure you don’t save changes made by errant keystrokes. If you make changes that you want to keep, use the Save button. (If you actually want to cancel the reservation, click the Cancelled checkbox to start the cancellation process.)

The indicator flags are mostly used just to determine the color that is used for the reservation on the Rack view, etc. With just a couple exceptions (see below), they are not used for any other purpose, so you can set them as you see fit.

The Don’t Move flag can be set if you want to avoid moving this reservation to another site. This will be flagged as such for color coding, plus the Assign Site functions will be disabled for this reservation.

The Group flag is typically set to indicate that a reservation is part of a large group. The program only uses this flag to set a special color on the tab views, so how this flag is used is entirely up to the user. This flag does not affect the linking of reservations or guest lists in any way.

The Extended Stay flag is typically set to indicate that a reservation is for a long period, usually for people who pay monthly or have no specific departure date. It’s not connected with the reservation’s Last Night field or affect site availability or any other program logic.

The Free Site (or Comp Site) flag is typically set for reservations that are not paying for their site, such as work-campers and campground managers. Like the other flags it sets the color for the tab views, but it is also used in the program to indicate that the reservation never has Payments Due (it won’t show up on that tab view unless it has other outstanding transaction charges).

This button will open the Customer Details dialog for the reservation’s customer, so you can make additional changes or see more customer details. See Working with Customers for more information on this. If the customer has the "Warning Flag" set, you will see a red warning icon next to this button.

Note that there is no way to actually change which customer record is assigned to the reservation. You can change any of the customer details, but remember that those changes will be permanent in the customer database. If you selected the wrong customer for a reservation and want to change it once it’s made, the only way is to delete the existing reservation and start over with a new reservation. (You could also cancel the reservation instead of deleting it, but that would result in a cancellation in your reports that wasn’t really a customer cancellation.)

A reservation’s guest list is actually just a list of additional customer records. Thus every guest will be in your customer database as well. Also note that this reservation will appear on the Reservation History of each of the guests as well. There is no limit to the number of guests you can add to a reservation, and they are optional. The purpose of adding guests is simply to have information on everyone in your campground, particularly adults. This can be for security purposes or simply to allow gift shop transactions to be applied to the guest.

The guest management function opens a new dialog that lists current guests, lets you add new ones or select existing customers to be guests, view guest details, remove guests from the list, or print the list. This list only shows the last name, first name, one of their phone numbers and their notes. However you can view or edit complete customer information for them using View Selected Guest Details (click on the guest’s line in the grid, then click the View button).

To add a guest that is already in your customer database, use the Find a Guest button. This operates just like the Find Customer function when making a reservation. The selected customer will be added to the guest list.

To add a guest that’s not yet in the database, use the Add a New Guest button. This will open a Customer Details dialog where you can enter as much information as you like.

To remove a guest from the list, click on the guest’s line in the grid and then Remove Selected Guest. This will not delete the guest’s record in the database, it will only remove it from this reservation’s guest list.

This will open a list of all transactions for this reservation, in a raw table format. This can be used for reference, or to print a complete transaction history. (To manage the transactions or print a receipt, use the New Transactions option.)

You can print an entire reservation record with the Print button. This will print a simple table with each field name and value, so it’s only meant for reference purposes.

If you made a mistake in a reservation that can’t be undone (such as selecting the wrong customer) or if you made a duplicate reservation by mistake, you may want to delete it entirely. Only an operator with Administrator access can delete a reservation, since it’s a permanent deletion and can affect the integrity of the database if the wrong reservation is deleted. (This is another reason to avoid using an Administrator login unless you know that you need to make such changes.)

To delete a reservation, simply click the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm the permanent deletion. However, if the reservation has any transactions then it cannot be deleted. This is a safeguard to prevent deleting financial information by accident. Generally if a reservation has had transactions then it wasn’t a mistake and should not be deleted, but perhaps just needs to be checked out or cancelled instead. If you absolutely want to delete the reservation and all of its transactions, you can go to the New Transactions dialog, delete all of the transactions, and then delete the reservation.

When a reservation is deleted, all references to it are cleaned up as well. This includes removing it from the reservation history of the customer and any guests, and removing it from any linked reservations.

This dialog can be opened directly from the main menu (Reservations | Find Reservation), or from the Reservation Details dialog if that was opened from the main menu.

The Find Reservation dialog allows you to search the reservation database in a variety of ways. By default, it will show all reservations that are on site during the next week (Filter by Date selected, starting today, ending 7 days later, and Resv period selected). In many cases, this may be sufficient to find what you’re looking for (you can sort by any column shown to help you look), but several other options are available. In addition to (or instead of) filtering by the reservation dates or the date the reservation was made, you can filter by the Last Name, Confirmation Number, Site Name, Operator, or Notes.

To select one of these other filters, first check the Filter by box. The default is Last Name, but you can change that in the drop-down box next to Filter by. Then enter the text in the next field, which will either be labeled "Starting With" or "Containing" depending on the search type selected.

When searching by Last Name or Operator, you don’t have to enter the whole name, just the first part. Of course the more letters you enter, the more precise the search will be. After entering a few letters, press Enter. A list of matches will show up. When searching by Confirmation Number, Site Name, or Notes, any reservation containing the text entered will match (it doesn’t have to start with the text entered).

If you prefer to see the entire list of reservations (not recommended for large lists of several thousand), you can uncheck both the Filter By option and the Filter by date option. All reservations will be shown, and you can sort by any column to help you find a customer.

Once a list is displayed, you can print the entire list by just clicking the Print button. Therefore this dialog can also be used to print out filtered reservation lists.

Once you find the desired reservation, select it by clicking the line with the mouse and clicking Use, or double-click on the reservation line. (If only one reservation is displayed, you can simply press Enter). This will open the Reservation Details dialog for that reservation. A shortcut to using the mouse to click on a reservation is to press Alt-G, which will jump "into" the grid, then use the up/down arrow keys to select a reservation.

During normal operations you should just enter new customer information on the New Reservation dialog as you make a reservation. To enter customer information without making a reservation, such as entering your old customer records, use the Customers | Add a New Customer from the main menu. You can also use the Add Customer button (faces icon) on the toolbar.

At this point you should see Record ID: <NEW RECORD> in the dialog, indicating that you are starting a new customer record. If you see any other record ID, then you are editing an existing customer record. The cursor should already be in the Last Name field, so you can just start entering the information, using the Tab key between each field. You can use Shift-Tab to back up a field, and of course you can use the mouse to jump to any field you like.

Note that most customer fields are free-form, so you can enter the text in any format you like and any length needed. For example, in the phone number fields you can put "Cell: 123-4567" or "555-1212 ext. 54". The only exceptions to this are the drop-down fields, which must be one of the selections in the list, and the numeric fields, including the Rig Size and the Adults, Children, etc. (Length fields can have a single-quote character, for "feet", but it is not necessary.) If any value is not valid, you will be warned before leaving the dialog and will get a chance to correct it. Any extra "spaces" typed at the beginning or end of entries are automatically removed, to avoid problems when sorting and searching for customers.

When you’re finished with a customer’s information, you can click Save -- or you can immediately click Add New to add another record so customers can be entered one after another. Each time you click Add New, the current customer info will be saved and the cursor will immediately jump to the Last Name field to help speed entry. Another time-saver is to use Alt-A on the keyboard instead of using the mouse to click Add New.

If you decide not to enter a new customer, even after entering some information, click the Cancel button. You will be warned if any new information would be lost by canceling the changes to the record, so you can abort the Cancel and get back to the dialog to Save it instead.

The more information you can enter for a customer, the better. Besides the obvious reasons for having more information, some of the information will help save time later. For instance, some of the values are automatically transferred to reservations when making a new reservation, such as Adults, Children, Rig Type, and Notes.

The discount club options can be used to help select appropriate rental rates. You can enter up to 3 discounts that a customer qualifies for, and optionally enter their membership numbers. The first discount shown will automatically be used when they make a reservation (but can be changed manually if needed), and the appropriate rates for that discount (if defined) will appear in the rates selection list on the Transactions dialog.

The option for excluding the customer from the mailing list can be used if the customer requests to be removed from your mailing list. While it won’t affect printing receipts, you can filter them out when printing mailing labels and envelopes. The E-mail list exclusion will work similarly, although support for E-mailing customers is not present in the current software version.

The warning flag can be used to black-list customers or for any other purpose where you need to check the customer’s information before making a reservation for them (you should indicate the reason for the warning in the Notes field). If this flag is checked, then a bright red warning icon (an exclamation point in a triangle) will appear on this dialog, plus the Reservation Details and the New Reservation dialog when that customer is selected. It doesn’t prevent any action, it just warns you that you need to check the notes.

There is no limit to the number of customers you can enter. Given the time, you could enter every old customer you have information for, just in case they come back. But remember that the more customers you have in the database, the longer it will take to find a particular customer (for instance, locating a particular "Smith" when making a new reservation). It can also slow down operations, like loading up the Find Customer list. So a good medium would be to start by entering customers whom you know come back often. (Any currently booked customers and future reservations that are already booked should be entered through the New Reservations dialog so you can enter both customer and reservation information at once.)

To edit any customer, you can use the Add Customers button (faces icon) on the toolbar or the Customers | Customer Details selection on the main menu. You will then need to use the Find button to get to the one you want to view or edit (see below). If you enter part of the customer's Last Name before clicking Find, then that will automatically be used to do an initial search. (This must be done on a "New Record" -- don't try to do it on top of an existing customer record!)

The quicker way to get to a customer, if you have a current reservation for the customer, may be to find them on the On Site tab or other tab view and use the right-click function Customer Details. Or if you already have a Reservation Details dialog open, just click the Customer Details button.

In any of these cases, the Customer Details dialog will open. (This is exactly the same dialog that’s used to add customers in the previous section.) However, if you open it for a particular customer (from right-click or from a Customer Details button), there won’t be any navigation buttons. Therefore you can only see that one customer. If you used the main menu or the toolbar to view customers, you will see buttons to navigate between customer records. You can use the navigation buttons to step through customer records. The Previous and Next buttons step forward or backward, as expected. The button to the left of Previous, which looks like |<<, will jump to the very first record (it’s meant to look like the "back-to-beginning" button on audio tape and CD players). Likewise, the >>| button to the right of Next will jump to the very end of the database.

At the top you will see something like "Record 5 of 53", and a Record ID. Don’t be alarmed if the Record ID doesn’t match the record number – there can be gaps due to deleted customers. The Record ID is a fixed stamp on the record that’s used by reservations and transactions to refer to the customer. The other record number is simply a sequential number that is just used to indicate where you are in the database, and is not part of the actual customer record.

See the Adding Customers section for more details on entering the customer information. You can also Print a customer record (which is a raw table with the customer fields).

New Reservation can be used to immediately make a new reservation. It is unique in that it will save the customer information and close the Customer Details dialog first, and then open the New Reservation dialog with the customer information filled in. (It closes the Customer Details dialog first to avoid circular dialog problems.)

Reservation History will open a list of reservations that this customer has made or has been a guest of. It contains a summary of the reservations, with their current status flags (checked in, cancelled, etc.). To see more information, you can double-click on it or click once and then click the View the Selected Reservation Details button, which will open the standard Reservation Details dialog, where you can make changes if you wish.

Warning – be careful when going this far to edit reservations, since it’s possible to start from the reservation dialog, click to customer details, click to reservation history, and click to edit the same reservation but in a different dialog (you’re several layers deep at this point). The results are unpredictable for this circular situation, and depend on whether you click Save or Cancel at each step of closing the dialogs.

New/Edit Transactions can be used to directly enter or edit transactions for this customer. Keep in mind that these transactions will not be associated with a reservation! Only use this if entering non-reservation transactions, such as gift shop purchases.

Transaction History will open a list of all transactions for this customer (including all transactions made for every reservation by this customer), in a raw table format. This can be used for reference, or to print a complete transaction history.

When you’re finished editing a customer’s information you can click Save, or you can click Cancel (or the Esc key) if you were just looking and don’t plan to make any changes. If you were editing and decide not to keep changes you’ve made, click the Cancel button. You will be warned if any new information would be lost by canceling the changes to the record, so you can abort the Cancel and get back to the dialog to Save it instead.

If you want to find a particular customer, you can use the Find button on the Customer Details dialog. If you enter part of the customer's Last Name on the Customer Details dialog before clicking Find, then that will automatically be used to do an initial search. (This must be done on a "New Record" -- don't try to do it on top of an existing customer record!)

You can also get to this by using the Find Customer button from the New Reservation dialog, or by using the main menu selection Customers | Find Customer.

The Find Customer dialog allows you to search the customer database in a variety of ways. The default is Last Name, and the cursor will already be in the "Starts With" field ready for you to type a name. You don’t have to enter the whole name, just the first part. Of course the more letters you enter, the more precise the search will be. After entering a few letters, press Enter. A list of matches will show up.

If you prefer to see the entire list of customers (not recommended for large lists of several thousand), you can uncheck the "Filter By" option. All customers will be shown, and you can sort by any column to help you find a customer.

Other filtering options include address, city, state, zip, country, phone number, E-mail, driver’s license, vehicle license, discount type, discount ID, and notes. The searches are somewhat intelligent – for instance, a phone number search allows you to enter any portion of a phone number, and any punctuation is ignored. For instance, entering "555" will match any phone number (in any of the 3 phone number fields) containing three 5’s in a row, even if they are separated like in the number (915) 552-0406. In addition, the list will always show the appropriate fields – for instance, if you search by zip code, the address fields are displayed but not the phone numbers or licenses.

One a list is displayed, you can print the entire list by just clicking the Print button. Therefore this dialog can also be used to print out filtered customer lists.

Once you find the desired customer, select it by clicking the line with the mouse and clicking Use, or double-click on the customer line. (If only one customer is displayed, you can simply press Enter). This will open the Customer Details dialog for that customer, or if you’re making a new reservation it will put that customer information in the reservation. A shortcut to using the mouse to click on a customer is to press Alt-G, which will jump "into" the grid, then use the up/down arrow keys to select a customer.

If you created a duplicate customer by mistake, you may want to delete it entirely. Only an operator with Administrator access can delete a customer, since it is a permanent deletion and can affect the integrity of the database.

To delete a customer, simply click the Delete button in the Customer Details dialog (available from the Customers main menu or by clicking the Customers toolbar button. You will be asked to confirm the permanent deletion. However if the customer has any transactions or reservations then it cannot be deleted, and you will be notified of the reason. This is a safeguard to prevent deleting financial information or reservation history by accident.

It’s possible for a duplicate customer to be created by mistake when entering a reservation and not checking to see if a customer already exists, which unfortunately means that it also has a reservation. Since there is no easy way to change the customer for a reservation (in order to get them all connected to a single customer record and delete the duplicate), this will likely result in duplicate customer information that can’t be deleted safely. One way to do it would be to write down (or print) all of the reservation and transaction information for the duplicate, delete the reservation as outlined below, and add the reservation to the correct customer. Note however that the transactions will be date-stamped for the day you re-add them, not by the original date. This will affect your reports.

If you absolutely want to delete the customer and all of its transactions and/or reservations, then you can do so by following this procedure (starting at the Customer Details dialog showing the customer to be deleted):

1. Click the Reservation History button.

2. Click on a reservation in the list and click View the Selected Reservation Details.

3. Click on the New Transactions button.

4. If there are any transactions in the list, delete them:

5. Click Done on the Transactions dialog.

6. Click Delete on the Reservation Details dialog.

7. Repeat steps 2 through 6 until all reservations are deleted.

8. Click Close on the Reservation History dialog.

9. Click Transaction History to see if there are any more transactions for this customer.

10. If there are no transactions, then Close the history and click Delete to delete the customer.

11. If there are transactions, then you will need to do the following to delete the transactions:

a. Close the customer dialog with Save or Cancel.

b. Open the New Transaction dialog with Transactions | Add a New Transaction.

c. Click Find Customer, locate the customer in the list, click on it, then click Use.

d. Click Enter New Transactions for the above Customer.

e. Delete transactions as in steps 4 and 5 above.

f. Return to the Customer Details dialog, find this customer and click Delete.

Administration note: It is possible to change the customer link for a reservation using the Maintenance | Data Tables | Reservation function, and manipulating the numerical index values. This will not be discussed here since it is very intricate and dangerous. If you feel this is necessary, contact technical support.

The Campground Master transactions data is a very simple collection if individual transaction "line items". Each record is essentially an individual line item – a single charge for a number of nights, a sales tax charge, a payment, a refund, and expense entry and so forth. These are tied together into something useful by the way they are linked to reservations and/or customers. Most of the time you will work with the Select Rate(s) function (described later) instead of entering individual charges, but you should still understand how each kind of transaction is used.

You can also use Campground Master to enter all of your campground expenses and miscellaneous income if you like, replacing the functions of a general ledger. You can generate a variety of reports for accounting purposes, such as a detailed expense report for the year or a categorized monthly income and expense report.

Each transaction has a number of fields for classifying, categorizing, calculating, and reporting purposes. The primary field is the Type (detailed below), and then there is a Category, a Description (you can enter what you like), a Payment Type, the Discount Used if applicable, a Quantity, the rice Each, and Total (automatically calculated). Every transaction also has a Notes field, where you can enter anything you like. Long descriptions should be entered here instead of the Description field, for better receipt formatting.

In addition, every transaction is stamped with the date and time made and the operator who entered it. Expense and Misc. Income transactions also have a Reference field where you can enter a check number, invoice number, or any other reference information needed.

For reservations, all transactions for the reservation are linked together so that you have a record of all charges and payments for that reservation. If it’s an extended stay, you can add charges and payments as needed for each payment period, and print out a receipt with either a complete history or just the new transactions each time. Although the transactions don’t look orderly when viewing the transaction list in the dialogs, the printed receipt will show them properly grouped and subtotaled for a professional-looking statement.

Transactions for reservations (and customers) are typically entered in charge/payment pairs. That is, you add "charge" transactions such as daily rate charges, discounts and taxes, then you add "payment" transactions such as deposits, payments, credits and refunds. In the end, these should all balance out to a zero balance if the account is paid in full. The order of the transactions makes no difference (for instance a deposit is usually entered long before any charges are applied). They will still show up appropriately grouped on the receipt.

For customers, all transactions are linked together for every reservation the customer has made, plus any reservations that have been entered for the customer outside a reservation. For example you can enter gift shop purchases for a customer and print a separate receipt for that purchase, and it won’t show up as part of the reservation transactions. You can also get a list (and print a statement) for all of the customer’s past transactions at once, for instance a summary for when they leave.

In addition, you can enter "unbound" transactions. These would include your expenses and miscellaneous income, but also any transactions that don’t have customer information, such as a walk-in to buy RV supplies that you don’t want to add to your customer database.

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).

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.

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.

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.

The discount transactions don’t have their own category (it’s set to a special "Discount" value for reporting purposes), but you can set the quantity and each price – 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 dialog’s drop-down list), and the description defaults to the Discount Used also.

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. The category is a predefined "Payment", 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.

Deposits are basically the same as payments, just separated for clarity on the receipts and for reporting purposes.

Credit transactions are for miscellaneous credits toward an account. This is most often used for coupons or promotions that aren't a monetary payment. They are treated like a discount in most respects, as they have a Transaction Category but don’t have a Payment Method. The description should be used to describe the purpose of the credit (bad weather allowance, credit for helping with mowing, etc.)

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.

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 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).

There are basically two ways to enter transactions – either through the Transactions dialog used for normal charge/payment transactions (for reservations, customers, and unbound transactions), or through separate transaction entry dialogs for Expense and Misc. Income transactions. Note that only operators with Manager access or above can enter Expense or Misc. Income transactions. Any operator with Clerk access or higher may enter other transactions.

Access to the Transactions dialog for a reservation is available in several places. The simplest way to get to it is to click on Transactions in the right-click menu of the tab views (for the appropriate reservation, of course). If you’re already in a Reservation Details dialog, then you can simply click the New/Edit Transactions button. You will also get the Transactions dialog automatically when performing certain functions like checking in, checking out, and canceling a reservation.

You can also get to it through the Transactions button on the toolbar (cash register icon), or through the main menu (Transactions | Add new Transaction). However you will then need to use Find Reservation to locate the reservation for which to make the transaction.

Note for concurrent (linked) reservations – Since transactions are only linked to one reservation, typically you would use only one of the reservations for all of the transactions when one person is responsible for them all. However, this can result in some inconsistencies in transaction reports that are grouped by Site Type or Site (all of the charges and payments will appear on one site, even if the linked reservation is on a different type, such as a Cabin and a Boat Dock). The only way to avoid the inconsistencies would be to enter separate transactions on each reservation, but that would require you to print multiple receipts for the customer. There isn’t a good solution to this, just be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the two ways of doing this.

At the top of the Transactions dialog is a "For Reservation" box, containing the reservation information most likely to be needed when determining the rates. In addition to some typical reservation fields, it shows the number of nights in the reservation, any concurrent reservation sites, and the Paid-Through date.

The Paid-Through date is of special importance – before finishing transactions, you should verify that this is correct. If the box next to the date is not checked (and the text is gray), make sure the box is checked so that the date is active. For convenience, there is a Paid Thru Last Date button which will automatically put the reservation’s Last Night in the Paid Through date, to indicate that it’s paid in full. Also note that if you do enter a payment and forget to set (or change) the paid-through date, you will get a warning prompt when you click Done.

Also note that any of the reservation dates can be changed at this time, but use caution since you can’t see the Rack to verify vacancy (you will be warned if a conflict is created). You can also use Reservation Details button to get to the Reservation Details dialog and make any additional changes necessary (although this button will be disabled if you got to the Transaction dialog from the Reservation Details dialog).

The dialog will already show any previous transactions for the reservation, as well as a Total Amount Due. These will be shown in the transaction grid on the dialog, and will have a white background to show that they are old transaction. Any new transactions entered will be shown with a light yellow background.

When you’re ready to start adding transactions, you should first select one of the Pay Methods (if you will be entering payment, deposit, or refund transactions), and a Discount Used (if you will be entering any discounts or charges that are based on a discount). If you have previously used a discount for this reservation, or if the customer has a discount defined, that discount selection will be inserted for your convenience. These are simple drop-down lists, and the cursor will start out in Pay Method to make it easy (for instance, you can quickly enter a Visa payment method by pressing the V key, then Tab to the Discounts used and press G for Good Sam). The next Tab will take you directly to the Notes field at the bottom, in case you need to make notes for these transactions. Any notes entered will be added to all of the transactions entered in this session.

To add transactions, use the buttons to the left of the transaction grid – either use the Select Rate(s) function or select an individual transaction such as Charge, Payment, etc. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts (Alt-S for Select Rates, Alt-A for Charge, etc.).

For site rentals and many other common transactions, you will probably have a number of Rates defined to speed the entry process, and to avoid mistakes that can occur if you had to enter the value each time.

When you click the Select Rate(s) button a new dialog will appear, with applicable Rental Rates shown by default (just because this is what you will probably be selecting most often). You can change the Rate Type to see other types or all types using the drop-down list. Some applicable reservation information appears at the bottom of the dialog for reference when selecting rates or entering quantities (the number of nights, discount, and any concurrent sites are shown).

If you have the rate codes memorized and prefer using the keyboard, you can select the rate by typing the rate code in the Rate code quick-finder field (the cursor will start there so you can just start typing). When the correct rate is selected, just press Tab to move to the Sites or other Qty field if needed, or go ahead and Add (Alt-A) the rate.

If you’re more of a mouse user, then just click on the desired rate, change the qty field(s) if necessary, and click Add. If you know that the quantities don’t need changed, you can just double-click the rate and it will be added with the default quantities immediately (see below for more about the quantities). Therefore in most cases, such as simple daily rates, all you will need to do is double-click the appropriate rate, then click Done to finish the rates selection.

Whenever a rate is highlighted in the rates list, one or more quantity boxes may appear to the right. These depend on the options selected in the rate definition, and can include a period quantity (Day, Week, Month, or Year), a Site quantity, or a simple Qty field (or any combination of these). By default, these will be filled with a number appropriate to the reservation for which you’re adding transactions.

For example, the Days quantity will automatically be filled with the number of reservation nights. This assumes that the rate applies to all of the dates of the reservation – otherwise it will only include the number of days that match the rate definition. Weeks, Months, and Years will be filled with a "truncated" number for the period – thus a 20-day reservation would show 2 weeks, since it’s assumed that you will also add the extra 6 days as a daily rate. (However if the reservation was for less than 7 days and you use a weekly rate, it would still assume that they are paying for 1 week minimum, not 0.)

Once the quantities are verified to be correct, just click Add to add the rate with the quantities shown to the Rates Selected list at the bottom. (Note: If the qty is 0, then Add will not do anything.) The tax amount is automatically calculated and shown along with a total. If you need to correct a rate, highlight the entry in the Rates selected list and click Delete Selected Item(s). Then add the rate again if necessary.

There is an option to Invert amounts of the rates – this will turn all quantities into negatives, so this can be used to cancel out a charge or for refunds – however, note that the transaction categories will not be changed to "refund" or "credit", so this could affect reporting. If you’re not concerned with reporting refunds separately from charges, then this is the easy way to do it. Of course if you’re just canceling a reservation, it’s probably best to just delete any associated charge transactions directly in the Transaction dialog, rather than adding negative charges.

For metered electric and water rates, there is a special dialog that appears when you Add the rate. This dialog shows the site name, the previous reading and date, and a button to view the last reservation that read the meter (in case there is a dispute). All you have to do is enter the new reading, and it will add the appropriate rate charge and also update the reading information in the Site record. Any other quantity entries will be ignored (and the rate definition should be fixed to not ask for a quantity).

You can repeat the rates adding process to select multiple rates of any type before leaving this dialog, and each one will appear in the Rates Selected list at the bottom with an updated quantity. When all needed rates are selected, click Done to accept all of the selected rates and add the rate charges to the New Transactions dialog. In fact, it’s recommended that you add all of the rates at once, so that the taxes are all combined into one transaction. You will end up with separate tax transactions each time you use the Select Rates dialog.

When you’re done selecting rates, transactions will be generated according to the transaction templates in the rate definitions, plus transactions for any auto-added taxes. These will appear as new transactions in the Transactions dialog, just as if you entered them manually. You can adjust them if necessary or delete any that you added by mistake. Take care in deleting individual transactions, since the tax won’t be re-calculated.

Even with comprehensive rates definitions, you will probably enter most payments and deposits as individual transactions, as well as the occasional special charge, credit, refund, etc. See the Transaction Types section above for a description of each type.

To enter an individual transaction, just click the appropriate button to the left of the transaction table. As soon as you click the button, a new transaction of that type will appear in the grid, often with some information already filled in and with the next suggested entry field ready to edit. For instance, click Charge and the category list for the new charge transaction will be opened for your selection (using the key shortcuts is fastest, but you can also use down-arrow or the mouse to select one).

As another example, clicking the Payment button will fill in the category and description with suggested values, and fill in the Total Amount Due as the payment amount (no Qty is needed). Just press Tab to complete the entry, or Backspace to correct the amount.

Note that for Payments, the Payment Method for that transaction will be set to the current value of the Payment Method selection. Thus you can enter multiple payment transactions with different payment methods by changing the Payment Method drop-down between transactions. (If you don't set the Payment Method until after entering Payment transactions, then all payment transactions will be set to the current Payment Method value when you click Done.)

When entering values, you don’t need to enter the dollar sign ($) – it will be added for you. Also note that Qty can be any number, including decimal numbers like 1.75. Clicking the buttons for other transaction types will fill in fields with the program’s best guess according to the type. Of course you can go back to edit any of the transaction values (even in the old transactions, although that’s not recommended). Just double-click on any cell in the grid to edit it, or click once to select the cell and start typing (what you type will immediately replace the current text). The only things you can’t change are the Type (determined by the button you clicked) and the Total (calculated by the software). Those are shown in gray to indicate that they can’t be edited.

You’ll also notice that the cells will grow as needed to accommodate longer categories, values and descriptions (sometimes requiring you to scroll to see the Total), and you can add as many transactions as necessary despite the size of the list (it will scroll as needed). It’s recommended to keep descriptions fairly short so that they fit on the receipts, since there is a limited amount of room. The text size will be shrunk to make it fit, but it can only shrink to a certain size, and it doesn’t appear professional when one long entry is smaller than all of the others. About the size of the normal "Item Descriptions" header in the dialog is a good rule of thumb. Also note that while the description often defaults to the category (in charge transactions, for instance), if you change the description then you should eliminate the existing text because the category will still appear on the receipt. For instance, if you change the description of a Gift Shop charge, don’t leave "Gift Shop" in the description. Make it something like "Flower Basket", and the receipt will still show "Gift Shop: Flower Basket".

Remember that you can add notes at the bottom if needed, which you will be able to see on reports but will not show up on the customer’s receipt.

Tax transactions have special handling in the dialog to speed the entry process when you click the Tax button. First it will see if you have Taxes set up (Maintenance / Park Setup / Taxes). If so, then it will show a selection of the defined tax categories. Simply select the appropriate tax and the selected rate will appear in the Each column. By default, it will also automatically put the total of all new Charge transactions in the Qty field (adjusted for any Discount transactions). The tax will then be the result in Total because it simply multiplies the Qty by the Each price. If the incorrect taxable amount is in the Qty field, you can back up to change that.

One common problem with this automation is when you have some charges that are taxable and some that aren’t, you have to change the taxable amount in the Qty field. One way to avoid this is to always enter taxable transactions first, then the Tax, and then the non-taxable transactions. Remember that the order won’t matter since the Tax transactions are separated on the receipt. Of course if you’ve defined Rates for everything with proper taxes, then you won’t even have to enter taxes manually.

If for any reason you calculate tax separately or don’t like the automation, you can enter Tax before any other charge transactions and enter the tax amount in Each. Although the Qty will show "0", the software will assume this means "no qty information" rather than multiplying by zero. Also note that if you don’t have Taxes set up and have no categories with "Tax" in them, you will have to select a category yourself for Tax transactions. This could be anything you want it to be, perhaps the category for the charges being taxed.

It’s very easy to delete transactions, both old and new. While this is handy if you click on the wrong transaction type button when adding transactions, it can also be a dangerous thing. To delete a transaction, all you need to do is click on any part of it in the grid and click the Delete Selected Item(s) button. You can delete multiple items at once as well, using Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select multiple lines.

You will get one warning prompt, so be sure to answer "No" to the prompt if you don’t mean to delete anything. In particular, old transactions can be deleted just as easily as new ones, and you cannot get them back using the Cancel button.

When you’re finished entering transactions, you may want to print a receipt (which is also commonly used for a reservation ticket for the office files), or you may be finished and ready to move on. Obviously you can just click one of the Print buttons to print a receipt, or Done if you’re finished, or even Cancel if you don’t want to save any of the new transactions.

First it should be noted that there are two separate things happening on this dialog – the transactions and the reservation information. If you change any of the reservation dates at the top, those must be saved as well as the new transactions. So remember this if you click Cancel. The software will ask you if you want to abandon "changes" if you have made any date changes, or if you want to abandon the new "transactions" if you or added transactions, so you will have a pretty good clue as to what would be cancelled. But if you made both date changes and added transaction, then it will only ask about the new transactions.

Now, assuming you are done and/or want to print a receipt, some validation will be done before continuing. For example, it will not allow any transactions without an Each amount. (It will warn you and move the cursor to the transaction amount that needs to be filled in.) It will also check to make sure you have selected a Pay Method if you have any transactions that need one, and a Discount Used if there are any Discount transactions.

You can print receipts from the transaction dialog at any time, whether you have entered new transactions or not. This can be used to print additional receipts or summary statements for the customer. There are two choices for printing. Print Reservation Receipt will print a receipt with all of the reservation’s transactions, old and new. Print New Transactions only will print the same kind of receipt but with only the new transactions. (This button will not do anything if there are no new transactions.)

In addition, you can select the Receipt Type. The default will be the type selected in View | Options | Printing, and the Ticket form is the original default. Just select the desired type in the drop-down box before clicking one of the Print buttons to change the style that prints (this will not change the default for next time). For details on the different formats, see the Reservation Receipts section in chapter 9 (Other Reports).

Receipts are much different than other reports printed in Campground Master. They are "forms" rather than a grid, so they don’t use most of the Print options (Black & White, Fit to Page, etc.). The receipt contains much of the reservation information (confirmation number, number of nights, customer info, vehicle information, site info, etc.), plus a standard disclaimer text, park information (from the Park record), and in some cases an "Additional Notes" section. (If the reservation is not yet assigned to a site, then the first Park record information will be used by default.) Then of course it has the statement of transactions.

The statement will first list all Charge and Discount transactions, and a sub-total for them. Next it will list tax if there is any, and Total Charges. Then it will list any payments, deposits, discounts and refunds, and a balance due. It will also show the Paid Through date for the reservation if there is one, as a reminder to the customer when the next payment might be due.

There should be plenty of room for all transactions in most situations. Because these receipts are often folded in half and put up in slots for each site in the campground office, the software will attempt to fit the transactions in the top half of the page, shrinking the text if needed. However it can only shrink it to a certain extent (to remain readable), so at some point it will continue down the page if a lot transactions are present.

If there are so many transactions that it won’t fit on the page, they will simply be cut off, as there is currently no allowance for a second page for receipts. (Approximately 45 to 50 transactions will fit on a page.) If this happens (most likely for a complete statement on extended stays), you could split the reservation at some point and thus start a new set of transactions. Or you could manually reduce the number of transactions by very carefully combining multiple charges and payments into single transactions and deleting the extras. Splitting the reservation would be the preferred method. It shouldn’t be necessary more often than once per year if they pay every month, and it would be good to "close" the reservation at the end of the year and start over anyway, for reporting purposes.

You may occasionally want to make transactions that are applied to a customer but not to a reservation, such as gift shop purchases. To do this, you will need to use the Transaction button on the toolbar (the cash register), or Transactions | Add New Transaction from the main menu.

You will then need to use Find Customer to locate the customer for which to make the transaction. (This works the same as Find Customer in New Reservation dialogs – sort by the appropriate column, locate the customer, click on it and click Use.) Once you’re back to the New Transaction dialog, just click the button to Enter Transactions...

At this point, the familiar Transactions dialog will appear, just like for reservations. It functions in every way like the reservations dialog, with the exception that the customer information will be shown instead of the reservation at the top (there is nothing to edit here, but you can go to Customer Details). You will see any previous transactions for this customer, including any transactions for reservations this customer has made. Therefore you could use this to print a transaction receipt/statement for the customer that covers all of his past reservations.

Another difference is the receipt appearance, even though it’s the same format as the reservation receipt. The Site and first/last nights area will be blank, the disclaimer/signature area will not be shown, and the park information will use the first Park defined in the database (since there is no reservation and thus no associated site to get the park information from).

For details on using the Transactions dialog, refer to the Reservation Transactions section. The few differences have already been covered here.

Important Note: One final thing to remember is that transactions here will not be reflected in any of the customer’s reservations. This may be important for "balancing" reservations – don’t enter a payment for reservation charges here because the reservation will still show a balance due. You should get to Transactions through the appropriate reservation to enter any reservation charges or transactions.

You may occasionally want to make transactions that are not applied to a customer or a reservation, such as gift shop purchases by walk-in customers (no need to clutter the customer database with non-campers or strangers). To do this, you will need to use the Transaction button on the toolbar (the cash register), or Transactions | Add New Transaction from the main menu. Then click the button to Enter Unbound Charge/Payment Transactions with no customer information.

At this point, the familiar Transactions dialog will appear, just like for reservations and customers. It functions in every way like the reservations dialog, with the exception that there is no customer or reservation information at the top. Another difference is the receipt appearance, even though it’s the same general format as the reservation or customer receipt. It will only show the park information, which will use the first Park defined in the database. For details on using the Transactions dialog, refer to the Reservation Transactions section. The few differences have already been covered here.

Since unbound transactions are not linked to a customer or reservation, they will only appear in the Transactions report (tab view). If necessary, you can edit an unbound transaction by locating it on the Transaction report and using the Transactions option on the right-click menu. All transactions entered at the same time (one Transaction dialog session) will still be grouped together, so for instance you can make changes to a counter sale and print out a complete new receipt. (Note: this only applies to unbound transactions entered with Campground Master version 1.2 or later.)

These transactions are different than others in that they are not done in charge/payment pairs, don’t have separate tax and discount entries, and so forth. They are single transaction entries, like entries in a ledger. As such, you won’t use the same grid-style transaction dialog as you do for reservation and customer transactions.

To enter these transactions, you can use the Transaction button on the toolbar (the cash register), or you can use the separate menu functions to Enter an Expense Transaction or Enter a Misc. Income Transaction from the Transactions main menu. If you use the Transaction button, then click on the appropriate button at the bottom of the dialog to enter an expense or misc. income transaction. Note that the operator will need to have a Manager access level or higher to enter these transactions – the menu/button options to enter them will be disabled otherwise.

At this point you will get a small dialog for either expenses or income (they look the same, just with different wording). Here you can enter the transaction date (defaulting to today but you can use it to enter old transactions easily), the payment or receipt method, check # or other reference, category, description, total amount and any notes.

These fields have all been covered in other sections and work the same here, except that you’ll notice that no other transactions have a field for Check # / Reference. This is only used for these ledger-type transactions, and you can use any text you like in this field. You’ll also notice that there is no Qty/Each, just one Total Amount field. As with others, no dollar sign is needed here, just enter an amount like "123.95" or "100".

After entering the transaction data, just click Save (or Cancel to abort it). When you view the Transactions tab, you will see the new transaction (assuming you’re viewing the date entered in the transaction dialog).

Transactions reporting is all done through the Transactions tab view, which is discussed in detail in the Transactions section of Dynamic Interactive Report Screens. Please refer to that section for reporting information.

Specialized reports are found under Reports on the main menu. There are three different statistical reports that are based on reservations, providing useful statistics to aid in managing and marketing your campground. In addition, there are Electric Meter and Water Meter reports (disabled if not supported by your sites), Mailing labels, Envelopes, and Batch Receipt printing. To generate each report, start by clicking the appropriate menu item.

Each of these reports is created interactively from a dialog. Just select the desired options in the dialog, then click the Generate Report button. You can then Print the report, or adjust the options to generate other reports. Whenever you have finished generating reports of a particular type, just Close the dialog. The last options you selected (except for the dates) will be saved for that report and used as the default the next time you open that report dialog.

The reports are grid-based summary reports similar to the Summary Transaction reports in the Transaction tab. Thus they use the same print option settings and have the same look. One difference is that there is no right-click menu in these report grids (but the common Grid Lines and Orientation options are available in the dialogs). Most of the controls in the three different report dialogs are similar, as detailed here.

You can select any start and end date for the reports, to filter reservations occurring in the selected date range. There are also helper buttons to quickly select Month-to-Date, Year-to-Date, Last Month and Last Year date ranges.

You can summarize the reports by days, months, or years. This results in one column (or row) for each day, month, or year of the selected date range. Keep in mind that the date range selected takes precedence. So for example if you summarize by month and selected the range 4/1/2001 to 5/1/2001, it will show April and May months in the report but will be reporting for only one day in May due to the 5/1/2001 ending date.

Any of the reports can be filtered by Site Type. You can select one site type or multiple types to include in the report, using the Ctrl-click to select more than one at a time. If no site types are selected, all site types are used (no filtering). This may not affect the groups represented in the report (except for the Occupancy report, which is grouped by site type), but it does limit the reservations used to calculate the report to those for the site type selected.

By default, you must click the Generate Report before it will calculate a report and fill the grid, since some reports can take a significant time to generate. If you’re reporting on a small date range or using a fast enough computer, you can select the auto-generate option so that the report is refreshed every time you change one of the options. This can be useful for experimenting with the controls to see how they affect the report before generating a report for a large date range.

Any of the reports may have their grid lines turned on or off by checking or unchecking this option.

The orientation of any report can be flipped with this option (uncheck it to put the dates in rows).

The wording is slightly different according to each report, but the option does basically the same for each report. It will prevent showing group rows or columns (but not date summaries) that have no possible results for the entire date range. Each report treats this slightly differently. In the Occupancy report, it will hide any site types with no available sites in the date range (according to the other options). In the How-Heard report, it will hide any sources that had no reservations reporting that source. In the Unfulfilled Reservations report, it will hide any of the reservation statuses that had no reservations with the given status.

Any of the reports can show either percentages or total number of reservations (or reservation nights). When showing percentages, some of the totals may be an Average percentage rather than a Total percentage. (If they are totals, then they should add up to 100% for that row or column). If there are no possible sites/reservations for a given cell total, it will show dashes (---).

If not showing as percentages, each cell will have two numbers, in the form "80 / 95". The first number is the total number of reservations (or nights) for that value, and the second number is the total that could be possible for that date period (all available site nights for the Occupancy report, or all reservations for that period in the other reports). If there are no possible sites/reservations for a given cell total, it will show dashes (--/--).

Note: a space is included in front of the --/-- values so that it's not interpreted as a date when copied or exported to Excel.

When this option is available for a report, selecting it will include sites in the calculations for each date even if it’s not available for that date, according to its season dates and/or special dates available or unavailable. (It doesn’t matter whether the site was "open" on that date or whether had a reservation.) Since this can result in less meaningful results, such as in Occupancy reports, you can disable this so that a site is only counted in the total possible for occupancy for a given date if it’s available for that date.

For the How-heard Report and the Unfulfilled Reservations, you can generate statistics one of two ways. The two options can result in very different results, each of which have their advantages, but when the results each way are compared to each other it can be especially useful.

With this option selected, it will count each night of a reservation as a separate "hit", like a separate reservation with the given value or status for each night of the reservation. Thus a reservation lasting 30 nights would count 30 times, while a reservation lasting 2 nights would only count twice. This also means that a reservation starting in May and ending in June would count some for May and some for June in a monthly report.

With this option not selected, every reservation counts only once regardless of its length, and it only counts for the date on which it started. Thus a reservation starting in January and ending in June would only count once, and only for the January total in a monthly report. In fact this can result in many reservations that cover the report’s date range being skipped entirely because they started before the date range. (However, this report is much faster to generate.)

The reason to check a report each way is to compare the results. For instance, when looking at "highway signs" results in a How-heard Report, a high percentage based on arrivals and a low percentage based on nights could mean that you get a lot of customers from highway signs, but they only stay a short time compared to other references. This revelation might even affect your advertising decisions because it creates a lot of work and expenses (checking them in and out, small credit card transactions, etc.) for smaller bits of income.

This report will show the percentage of site occupancy (reservations filling the sites) for a given date range. You can select which site types to report, which will affect the Average Percentage totals for a date period – for instance if you exclude seldom-used site types like boat docks, your average for the period would more accurately reflect the actual occupancy average. Of course occupancy is averaged for each of the site types as well, so you know precisely how much of each site type is filled.

Counting sites even if they are unavailable is usually not appropriate, but might be useful to indicate what the overall occupancy percentage would be if you made them available the whole time.

When not showing percentages, you can see how many total site-nights were available for each period (sites times the number of nights – for instance, 30 nights in a month times 100 sites would show 3000 site-nights). It also shows how many were filled for each period. This can help illustrate that 80% resulting from 8 out of 10 is not as significant as 80% resulting from 800 out of 1000.

The averages are calculated from the totals of all groups, so they are weighted accordingly. Thus you can see groups of 80% and 100% average out to 82% rather than the "intuitive" 90%, because there were more possible site nights in the 80% group than the 100% group.

This report shows Average percentages in both total directions (for all site types over the total date range, and for all dates of a given site type). There is no requirement for percentages to total up to 100% as in some other reports, since that can only happen if all sites are full for all nights in the range.

You can also use this report to check occupancy levels for future dates, since it will also count pending reservations already made for the future. (Note however that it can only count reservations that have sites assigned to them.) This can be useful for predicting and preparing for a busy season, or for seeing when you need to do more advertising to fill more spaces, perhaps by sponsoring a special event or sending out coupons in a normally slump period.

This report shows you the sources of your customers. It will group the totals by each category you have in the How-heard pick-list. It can be useful to see which advertising methods are paying off. You can select which site types to include in the reports, so for instance you can compare results for full-hookup deluxe sites vs. electric/water sites (perhaps to see where the big-spenders are coming from).

The percentages are based on all reservations (or reservation nights) found for each period. In addition to the percentages for each summarized date period, it will show an average percentage for all date periods combined (the entire date range). Since it also includes a category for "no info" (when no How-heard value is selected by the operator), the total of all How-heard categories should be 100% for each date period.

If you have a lot of How-heard sources, you can make the report smaller by hiding those with zero totals – however, that might hide the critical information of which advertising is producing absolutely no customers!

This report is useful for seeing how many reservations have been "missed" due to customer cancellations, inquiries that did not turn into reservations, and not being able to accommodate customers. It will report percentages (or totals) in five categories:

Could Not Fill (the "couldn’t book" flag on reservations)

Cancelled (presumably cancellations by the customer)

Waiting List (couldn’t book them but they wanted to know if something came available)

Inquiries (information saved but no reservation made)

Filled or Pending (either successful past reservations or booked future reservations).

Note that you can use this report to report on future dates as well as the past, which can indicate when you have a lot of customers already waiting for space (perhaps to prepare some extra sites to take on the demand).

In addition to the percentages for each date period of each category, the average percentage for the entire date range is shown. Since all possible status conditions are covered, the Totals for all categories should be 100% for each date period, as well as the Averages.

If you don’t select the Show as Percentages option, you will see the actual number of reservations (or reservation nights) for each of the categories, which can also be useful.

You can also select which site types to report, which would allow you do make comparisons between cancellations of deluxe sites vs. economy sites, for instance.

These two reports are identical except for which meter fields they report. Either or both of these reports may be disabled, if the Site Data Fields for electric or water meter support are disabled. They show the site name, the current occupant (the reservation scheduled for today, if any), the last reading date, and the last reading. Manager operator access is required to view this report. There are 2 filtering options for the reports:

Show only sites with previous readings – this is selected by default, which generally will be any sites that actually have meters. If you want to see all sites even if they don’t have previous meter readings (such as when entering readings for the first time), uncheck this box.

Filter by last reading date – this allows you to select a date range for the last reading. This is handy for getting a list of meters that need to be read (and customers billed) for the current day or week. By default, the start date will be 45 days ago and the end date will be 25 days ago, so it will show any readings up to 2 weeks "overdue" and any readings that will be "due" within about 5 days (assuming a monthly reading schedule. These dates can be changed of course.

By default, the list is sorted by site, but you can change this to any order you like. Once you have the list showing what you need, you can print the list. There should be plenty of room left on the paper to enter the new reading, so it can be used as a walk-around list.

You can manually adjust readings by double-clicking on any Site Name. This will open the Site Details dialog, where you can enter a new reading. Remember, however, that entering a reading this way will clear the reservation link so you won’t be able to use the "View reservation read by" button.

You can also open the Reservation Details for the site’s current occupant by double-clicking the Occupant name. You will then be able to use that dialog’s New / Edit Transactions button to add a meter charge for that reservation, which will properly update the site and also let you print an invoice for that reservation. Thus this report is easily used for entering all of the new readings and printing invoices.

The dialogs for these reports are identical, they just print different formats. You can get to this report dialog from the main Report menu or from a right-click menu on a tab view (print an envelope for the selected reservation, or print mailing labels/envelopes for all shown reservations).

Mailing Labels will assume the industry standard "30-up" label sheet on Letter size (8.5" x 11") paper – Avery numbers 8460, 8660, 8920, 8940, etc. While this format cannot be changed, if the labels don’t print in the proper position then you may need to adjust the Printer Offsets in View | Options | Printing. Experiment with plain paper before using labels.

Envelopes assume something like a #9 or #10 envelope by default, but can be sized to any envelope by changing the paper size in File | Printer Settings | Envelopes and the address offsets in View | Options | Printing.

If preparing for a mass mailing of an advertisement, you should check the Filter out "Exclude from Mailings" customers box to eliminate those who do not want mail.

If entering this dialog from the main Report menu, all customers will be shown in the list to print. If entering from a right-click menu on a tab view, then only those customers from that view will be shown. The Filter out duplicate customers box is checked by default, since tab views can often show multiple reservations for the same customer. Of course you can always uncheck this, perhaps so that labels and receipts are matched up properly even for those customers with multiple reservations.

You can also filter the customers to print by checking the Use reservation, with optional filtering box. (This check box is not shown if entering from a right-click on a view, since you’re using reservations already.) First this will eliminate any customers that do not have reservation records (customers entered as guests, or who only purchased something in the gift shop, etc.). Then you can further filter the list with the Reservation Filtering button. Since this filtering is identical to the filtering used for batch-printing receipts, it is described separately below. Note that the filtering options are not saved once the report dialog is closed.

The total number of customers in the list is shown at the bottom. Also note that you can double-click on any line to get the Customer Details dialog, where you could fix an address, check the Exclude from Mailing flag (for instance on ones that have no zip code), or any other changes. The list will be re-generated with any updates you make.

Once you have them filtered as needed, you can trim down the list further by selecting only those customers to print. For instance, it may be handy to sort them by zip code (the default), and select only those records with zip codes. Use the multi-select methods to select multiple records (click / shift-click for a range, ctrl-click for individual lines). If none are selected, all will be printed (the same as selecting all records).

Finally, just click Print (or press F8) to print them. The Enter key will also print by default.

This report dialog is similar to the mailing labels/envelopes dialog. You can get to this report from the main Report menu or from a right-click menu on a tab view (print a receipt for the selected reservation, or print reservation receipts for all shown reservations).

First you will want to select the receipt format to print. As on the New Transactions dialog, this will default to the selection chosen in View | Options | Printing. You can select a different type here, and it will only affect this one printing (it will not change the default). See below for a description of the different types.

You can filter the reservations to print with the Filtering button. If entering this report dialog from the Reports main menu, it will show only reservations made today by default. Therefore if you print a batch of confirmation letters for reservations made each day, it’s all set (but you may want to further filter out any that have already checked in if you have walk-ins). See below for details on the filtering dialog. Note that the filtering options are not saved once the report dialog is closed.

The total number of reservations in the list is shown at the bottom. Also note that you can double-click on any line to get the Reservation Details dialog, where you could make changes if needed. The list will be re-generated with any updates you make.

Once you have them filtered as needed, you can trim down the list further by selecting only those reservations to print. For instance, you may want to avoid printing confirmation letters for any that are arriving within the next few days. Use the multi-select methods to select multiple records (click / shift-click for a range, ctrl-click for individual lines). If none are selected, all will be printed (the same as selecting all records).

There are four basic receipt types:

Ticket form – This type was designed to look like a common printed form, familiar to many campgrounds doing hand-written tickets. This is also the only type that will contain the Additional Notes section, which comes from the Park record. There is also a no-color form which will print faster, and also forms with the Site and Dates on the left-hand side (which may work better when folded for showing in windows, etc.).

Full-page invoice – this is designed for a full-size page (Letter, A4, etc.), and prints a professional-looking invoice with the word "Invoice" at the top. The customer’s address position can be adjusted for use with window envelopes (see View | Options | Printing). There is also a no-lines version that will print faster, which doesn’t put lines around the transaction table.

Quick-receipt – this is a basic fast-printing receipt, with no lines or color. It is also small and will print on half-pages or small paper sizes like A5 (landscape mode). This format does not include the "Notice" and customer signature sections like the Ticket and Invoice forms.

Confirmation letter – This is in the form of a letter, designed for use as a reservation confirmation. It has the transactions table like the other receipts (with no lines, for a more letter-like appearance), and also includes a customizable text section for the confirmation notice (see Maintenance | Park Setup | Confirmation letter text). The Notice will be printed at the bottom, but it does not include a customer signature line. The customer’s address position can also be adjusted for use with window envelopes (see View | Options | Printing).

To customize the Notice section of the receipts, see Maintenance | Park Setup | Notice message.

This dialog allows a number of filtering options to aid in printing mailing labels, envelopes, and batches of invoices or confirmation letters.

The first section is the date filtering. If selected, there are 5 different options for date filtering (only one can be used at a time). Start date filtering is handy for printing invoices for any that are arriving soon. End date filtering is useful for pre-printing check-out receipts for the day. Start-to-end filtering could be used to print an end-of-month receipt for all those present at that time, or to print mailing labels for any that will be present for your annual parade, or any who stayed at your park last year. Paid-through date filtering is useful for printing invoices for those who have not paid past a certain date. And finally, Date-made filtering is handy for printing invoices or letters for any reservations made today, yesterday, etc.

The next section includes options to include or exclude group reservations, and to include or exclude any that have a balance or not. You can even select only credit balances to print, in case you need to send refunds.

Finally, you can filter by the value 4 different fields – the reservation status, the site type, the discount used on the reservation, and how they heard about your park. You can make single or multiple selections in each list as needed. (Selecting none in the list is the same as selecting all of them.)

To clear all selections (for no filtering at all), click the Reset All button. You can click Cancel to abort changes, but this may not clear all selections (it will keep the selections that were present when you entered the filter dialog).

Maintenance functions, available in the Maintenance menu of the main menu, are functions that are typically used only occasionally to setup up the database or make certain "dangerous" changes to the database. None of the maintenance functions may be accessed by an operator with less than a Manager access level, and only the Backup and Restore functions can be used by a Manager – the rest of the functions require Administrator access.

The reasons to make backups are covered earlier in the section Setting Up Your Campground Database, so it’s assumed that you will be doing this on a regular (daily) basis. Your data is too valuable to lose, so don’t skimp on this step! Making a backup is very simple. In fact, after the first backup is made, it can be done with 2 or 3 mouse clicks.

A backup of the database is simply an extra copy of the database file, which can be used to restore all of your data either on the original computer or on another computer with the Campground Master software installed. The copy may be compressed to save space with the ZIP option (turned on by default). Normally backups are made to a floppy disk since any computer can read the disk, and they are small, cheap, and easy to use. If you have a more sophisticated computer setup, you might make backups to other kinds of removable storage or to another computer on the network. (We recommend using removable storage, since backing up to another computer does not allow for easy rotation of daily backups or for keeping a portable copy off-site.)

Before making your first backup, you need to decide where you’re going to back up your files. Some advanced options were mentioned above, but for this discussion we will assume that you will back up to a floppy disk, which is normally your A: drive.

After inserting a floppy disk in the drive, just click on the "safe" icon on the toolbar to start. You will see a "Save As" dialog, which is the standard Windows file dialog for saving files to a specific location. From there you need to do two things – enter a file name and select a location for the file.

The first part will actually be done for you in most cases. You should see the name of your database in the File name field, possibly with a .zip extension instead of the normal .prk extension. If you don’t see anything in the File name field, or if you prefer to name your backups differently (for instance you could use a different name for each day), then you can change that name. You should either leave the extension the same, or enter a name with no file extension (in which case it will use the default extension of .zip or .prk). Whatever name you use here, it will be remembered and used the next time you make a backup.

Now you need to select a location. If you have backed up before, the previous location is already selected for you. If this is the first time, you will need to select it from the Save In: drop-down list (called Look In: on some computers). Assuming you want to save it to the A: floppy disk drive, this may be as simple as clicking on the list to open it and clicking on the A: drive selection. If you don’t see A:, click on My Computer to open up that folder, then click on the same drop-down list again to select A:. If you haven’t inserted a disk in A: you will get an error message, in which case you can insert a disk now and retry.

Now that you have a file name and location selected, click the Save button on the dialog (or OK on some systems). If there’s a previous backup on that drive, it will show a warning that there is already a file by that name on the disk, and ask if you want to replace it. Answer Yes to proceed with the backup.

While the file is being backed up, the cursor will change to an hourglass (wait cursor). You can’t do any other functions while the file is being backed up. Initially it should only take a few seconds. As the database grows, it will take a little longer to back up.

That’s it, you’ve created a backup! Now the next time you back up, it can be done in 2 or 3 clicks – click on the Safe icon, click Save (since the location and file name will be recalled from the first time), and click Yes if it asks you to confirm replacing the file.

If you get an error message saying that the disk is full, you will need to start using the Compressed option so that it takes less space and so that multiple disks can be used if necessary. (Also make sure you are using disks that don’t have any other files on them!) This is the default option, so you should never encounter a "disk full" message unless you change the compression option.

If the database grows too large to fit on one disk when you are using the Compressed option, you will be asked to "Insert disk 2 of the set" and so forth until the backup is complete. If you’re using multiple disks, make sure you have each one labeled according to disk number (disk 1 of 2, disk 2 of 2, etc.) and that you have enough disks in rotation to make a set each day. For instance, you should have a "Monday 1 of 2", "Monday 2 of 2", "Tuesday 1 of 2", and so forth. Be sure to insert the correct disk of the set each time. When you need to restore the backup, you will be asked to insert the disks by number, so the order is important.

If you get an error that the disk is write-protected, try moving the little write-protect tab in the upper corner of the disk so that it covers the hole. If that doesn’t work, it may be a defective disk or a defective disk drive. Try another disk, and if that doesn’t work, consult a technician.

If you get other errors, like "error writing to A:", it may be caused by a defective disk. Try another one, and discard the one that had the error if another disk works. If each disk you try gets an error, then the drive could be malfunctioning.

We all hope it never happens, but the day may come when your computer malfunctions or some other problem requires you to restore the database from the backup copy. Hopefully you had been making daily backups so you won’t lose more than a day’s work. (This is also a good reason to keep copies of printed receipts for at least a day or two, in case you need to re-enter reservations.)

Restoring from a backup is just as easy as making a backup, but there are more steps and warnings because it’s inherently a risky function. Even with a perfect backup, you are asking the software to load a database that may be older than the one it’s currently using, so you need to be sure that it’s necessary.

To start a Restore, select Restore from Backup on the Maintenance menu. Remember that you must have Manager access to use this function. After one or more warnings (depending on whether the current database is saved and whether you’ve done a backup from this computer), you will see a File Open dialog. If you have done backups from this computer, it will assume you want to restore the last backup made and will fill in the file name and location accordingly – so all you would have to do is click the Open button. If this is a new computer and you have not made a backup on it before, then you will have to navigate to the location of the backup file (as in Backing Up above), and select the backup file name from the file list. Once the File name field has the proper name in it, you can click Open.

Now it will load the backup from the disk (asking for other disks in the backup set if necessary). Once that is done, you will get a "*** Last Chance ***" warning message. This indicates that although the backup data has been loaded, the original database file has not been replaced so you still have a chance to change your mind.

If you are sure that the database you just loaded from the backup is the data you want, then you can continue as normal (you will need to log in again, since the restoration procedure automatically logs out the previous operator). If you’re not sure yet, read the following section carefully.

Assuming you have just completed the Restore and done nothing else, you still have a chance to change your mind and get the previous database back. This is because the database restored from the backup has not yet been saved to the hard disk.

If you immediately recognize that you don’t want the restored data, then go straight to File | Open in the main menu, and make sure you say No to the "Save current database changes before opening a new one" prompt. Then select the original database file name from the Open dialog presented (the correct folder location should be automatically selected, but you will need to select the correct file name from the list).

If you need to look around at the data before deciding to keep the restored data, it gets more complicated. First you will have to log back in to look around. If you have the Auto-save function enabled, you really must be careful at this point, because any change to the database will cause it to be saved, replacing the original database. In fact, this may be the only time you ever see the blue disk "Save" icon enabled on the toolbar. This means that a change has been made (restoring the database caused the "change") but it has not been saved. Normally, with auto-save enabled, this state never exists because all changes are saved immediately. But restoring from a backup is the one case where the auto-save is disabled, but only until the next change is made! The safest thing would be to immediately go to View | Options | Program and turn off the Auto-save option. Then the old database won’t be overwritten until you manually save the data.

If you’re comfortable with file saving and loading, you might also want to use Save As to save the restored database to a different name, so you could use it as you like and still get back to the original if needed. (Once you’re sure it’s correct, you would want to use Save As to save it back to the original database name so things are back to normal.) If you’re not comfortable with this, don’t attempt it!

So now you have logged in, the data has not been saved, and you need to look around. If you don’t turn off auto-save, treat it like a ticking bomb – one click on Yes, Done, Save, or OK on a dialog can cause the data to be saved (even a Cancel could cause the data to be saved in some cases). However, you can look at each of the tab views to determine if the data is correct. Doing anything that would open a dialog, like Reservation Details, is potentially dangerous if auto-save is still enabled, but not a problem if you’ve disabled auto-save.

When you’re satisfied that the restored data is what you want, click on the Save icon (the blue disk) or use File | Save from the menu, and then turn auto-save back on if desired.

If, however, you decide that this is not the database you want, then go to File | Open in the main menu, and make sure you say No to the "Save current database changes before opening a new one" prompt. Then select the original database file name from the Open dialog presented (the correct folder location should be automatically selected, but you will need to select the correct file name from the list). Then you can repeat the Restore process with another backup set if needed, or continue with the original data.

Although the Backup function saves the most important data (the database), there are a few things that are not stored in the database that you may want to save once in awhile. There is no program function to do this, so you will need to be familiar with basic file functions (such as using Windows Explorer).

All of the program options (the View | Options settings and Color Key selections), plus the memorized transaction reports and the last settings used for the other reports, are stored in the file "Campground Master.ini". (Note the space character between "Campground" and "Master".) This file is located in your Windows folder, which is usually C:\Windows. You can simply copy this file to a floppy disk occasionally, so if you need to load the software on a new computer then you can restore these settings as well.

This Maintenance function simply shows a dialog with your current authorizations, according to the license you have purchased. There is nothing to edit here, so it’s just for reference if you are asked for it when calling for support. The authorization key is entered through the Park Setup, covered elsewhere.

This will close the current database and initialize the software for creating a new database. Administrator access is required to use this function, as it is usually only done once when creating the campground database and never done again.

All of the data tables will be emptied, default fields will be enabled, and default pick lists will be set up. The operator list will also be reset to having one Administrator operator, which will be logged in automatically. The database name will also be cleared, indicated by <UNTITLED> in the caption bar.

Using New Database is not terribly dangerous because it’s not easy to write this new database over your old one (you would have to select the name of the old one manually), but it’s not something that should be done without a good reason.

Once the new database is created, you must save it to a new name and location using the File | Save As function. Until you do this, changes will not be saved even if the Auto-save option is enabled, because the database has not yet been named. Once you have given it a name with Save As, the auto-save will function normally.

The functions under Park Setup are for editing the Park, Site, Taxes, Rates and Operator tables of the database, plus a few other things. These are primarily used when setting up the database, but of course you can use them to make changes to the sites, edit the park notes for the receipt, add or change operators, and so forth. Administrator access is required to view Operators, and also to add or delete parks and sites. You can view and edit parks and sites with Manager access, but cannot add or delete them unless you have Administrator access.

The Park, Site, and Operator dialogs works the same as the Customer Details dialog. They have navigation controls at the top to step through records, add a new record, delete a record, and print a record. See the Customer Details dialog for information on the common navigation controls, and the appropriate section below for specific details.

The other dialogs (Taxes, Rates, Notice, and Confirmation text) are unique in their operation – see the appropriate section below for details.

The Taxes setup is a simple dialog showing entry for 4 tax rates. For each rate, simply select a Transaction Category to use for it (each tax rate must have its own transaction category), enter the rate, and enter a description if desired (optional, it is only seen on this dialog). Tax rates defined here are used for Rates, and also for manually entering taxes on Transaction dialogs.

By default, you may see 1 or 2 tax rates already defined when you set up your database. Feel free to change these. To delete a tax rate, simply change its category to be blank. Then it will no longer show up wherever tax rates are used.

If you don’t have a category set up for each tax rate you need to define, go to the Pick Lists and add appropriate Transaction Categories first. The order or position of the categories in the Transaction Categories pick list doesn’t matter. These categories will allow you to create reports showing the amount of each tax collected, and will also allow the Transactions dialog to correctly calculate the tax.

Note that the tax rate is a multiplier, not a percentage. Thus, 6.25% should be entered as .0625. Any time the tax rate changes, just come back here to change the rate.

Important – once you set up Rates, never change the position of these tax categories. This is because the Rates are defined as being taxable by tax rate number (1, 2, 3, or 4), so if you switch them around then you will have to change every Rate definition.

These setup dialogs simply allow you to edit the text used for these sections of receipts. The Notice text should remain approximately the same size so it fits in the designated areas of the receipts. The Notice dialog shows approximate formatting and the text should fit in the box shown. The Confirmation letter text may be just about any length (allowing space for transactions, etc.). You can also add line breaks in the text using the "\n" sequence (see the default text for an example, and also the example for Additional Notes in the Park Setup dialog).

Usually you will have only one Park record. This is used for the park info on the receipts and a couple other things. This is also where your software license authorization code is stored, which is keyed to the park information.

The only reason to have more than one park record would be to show different information on receipts for different sites – for instance, you might want to print different Additional Notes on the receipts for your RV sites than for your cabins or tent sites. Your software license authorization code will limit the number of parks you can have, so be sure you request this when you purchase the software, or else you will have to request a new license code to add additional park records.

The individual park fields are described below.

The only critical information of these is the Park Name and address, which is used for authorization. In addition, the Park Name is used in the Sites setup for selecting a park record for the site.

This information is also used for the printed reservation and transaction receipts. The Park Name, address, all three of the phone numbers, E-mail, Web and Owners information will all be printed on the receipts in the park information box.

The Short Name is not currently used, but in future versions could be used for an abbreviation in reports.

The Check In time is used as the default Estimated Arrival time on the Reservation Details dialog. This is the only use for these fields in the current software version.

This is calculated by the software, and it can’t be edited. It’s your park key, which you may need to provide to Cottonwood Software when purchasing a license, before you can get an Authorization Code. (If you make changes to the park name or address, you may see the key code changing.) It’s important that you do not make any changes that would alter this without contacting Cottonwood Software for a new Authorization Code.

This is your Authorization code for your software license. Keep this code written down in a safe place!

Without the proper code here, the software will be limited to either a number of days use or will not allow you to add sites to the database. This code will be created by Cottonwood Software, based on your Key Code and the license details (number of parks, sites, consoles, and product options you need). If you change this code manually, the program will check that it’s a valid code and may report an error. If the code is not valid, the software will revert to Demo mode, which is limited to 100 reservations. This code should only be entered the same time you enter the initial park name and address, so that it will be a valid code.

During your setup period or if you request a full-function trial, you may be given a "trial period" code, which will let you use the software for 30 days. Once you purchase the full license, you will be given a new Authorization code to replace it, which may be entered here to upgrade the authorization levels. You may also receive a new code if you purchase upgrades or need to license the software for additional parks, sites, or consoles.

The Notes fields are used to add an Additional Notes section on the printed reservation and transaction receipts. You can have up to 3 notes of any length (assuming they fit on the printed page), and each of these notes will appear in a separate "box" on the receipt (it will have a border around it to separate it from the other notes).

Each note can be multiple lines, but is entered as one long line in the dialog field. If you type a long note, it will automatically wrap to multiple lines as needed on the receipt. But you can also control the formatting with the use of the "new line" escape sequence, \n. This way you can insert blank lines and force multiple lines where needed to format the note.

Here is a detailed example of a possible note field using multiple lines, which would be typed in one long string:

Please keep your campsite clean and free of clutter, for the enjoyment of all of our guests.\n\n -- Avoid storing items under your camper.\n\n -- Please no area mats or rugs, they kill \n the grass for the next camper.\n\n -- No outside clotheslines.\n\n -- Clean up after your pets. Baggies are \n available at the office if you need them.

Notice the \n sequences and the spacing, and imagine that you were typing this on a typewriter using the carriage return each time you see a \n. If you see \n\n, that means an extra blank line will be inserted. The output on the printed receipt will look like this (including the width as it would be on the receipt):

This is where you set up all of your campground’s rentable commodities – anything that needs to be reserved on a daily (or nightly) basis. While this primarily applies to accommodations like camping sites or cabins, it can also apply to motel rooms, boat docks, storage sites, ballrooms, or even bicycles and video tapes. It’s completely up to you.

You will be limited on the number of site records you can enter depending on the license you purchase. You can see the limit for your license in the View Product Authorizations dialog. You will get an error message if you try to enter more than you’re authorized for.

One unique property of this table is that the order of entries is important. The record order as shown in the table (not the Record ID order) determines the order that the sites appear on the Rack tab view and how they are sorted in other tabs or drop-down boxes. Therefore you should plan the order before adding sites here, but don’t worry about needing to insert records later – you can use the Data Tables function (discussed later) to insert sites where you need them.

Actually, the Data Tables dialog is a much easier way to add a large number of sites, since you can copy fields from one site record to many sites at once in the data table grid. But for adding your first few sites or for viewing and changing individual sites, you should use the Sites Setup dialog.

Although you can delete a site, don’t delete any site that has been used for a reservation! This would result in an undefined site link if you ever view a reservation for this site, and also will affect the accuracy of reports. Only delete a site if it has never been used for a reservation, for instance when you are setting up sites for the first time. If you need to "remove" a site later, you should use the Site is Inactive flag discussed below.

The individual site fields are described below. Note that some fields may not appear for you, for instance if the field has been disabled in your database (see Define Data Fields).

These fields should all describe the site, in increasing length and/or detail. Each one is used in different places to represent the site.

The Common Name is used in most places where sites appear as a cell in a grid, such as Tab view reports, and in places where a full name is used like when viewing a reservation. You may want to include a word like "Site" in this name for clarity, like "Site 35" or "Lot 35", or you can be more specific like "RV 35" or "Tent 35". It should be limited to about 10 characters for the best results.

The Abbreviation is used where a shorter name would work best to save room or where "Site" would be redundant, such as in the rack "Site" header cells, the drop-down Quick-Pick list on the New Reservation dialog, and on the printed reservation receipts. Typically this is just an identification number like "35" or "C-35", but it should be unique – don’t use "35" for both RV lot 35 and boat dock number 35.

The Description is optional. If it’s available, it’s used in the pop-up tips whenever you move the mouse over a site name cell on the grids (either the row/column headers in the Rack or their fields in the other Tab views. If no description is available, then the Common Name is used. While this can be as long as you like, it works best when 20 or fewer characters are used. This is just so it doesn’t obscure too much of the screen when it pops up. Examples: "Site 35 - 30A/W/S", "Site 35 - Maple St.". The use of this field depends on what helpful information you would like to see when you move the mouse over a site’s cell.

This is a drop-down list with a list of the defined Park records (usually only one selection). You should select one of the parks for the site even if there is only one park defined, since it’s used to determine which park’s information is printed on the reservation receipts. See the Parks Setup Dialog section for more information.

You can fill in these if you want the receipts to show the message "Have visitor mail sent to:", and the 2 lines of address information. Only 2 lines are available, so it’s suggested to use one line for the street and lot number, and the other for the city/state/zip. Since these fields are only used for printing purposes, they are optional.

As with the address lines, these are optional and only used to print "Your phone number(s):" on the receipts. You can enter 1 or 2 phone numbers, and these would typically only be used if the site has a fixed phone number, such as for instant-phone sites.

These fields allow you to indicate which site is physically in front of, in back of, and to the right or left of this site. They are not used in any particular way other than for reference, since they only appear on this dialog, so they are not required. (In future versions they will allow support for functions like automatic selection a number of adjacent sites or to assist in making "buddy" or group reservations.)

Since each one of these is a drop-down list of all sites defined, one obvious problem is that you can’t fill in this field until all of the sites are defined. So you would need to go back through the sites after setting them up to set these fields.

These are pick-list selections, which you can define. They are attributes used in the Site Preferences selection when making a reservation, so you can set them according to what would help select appropriate sites. They are covered in more detail in the Pick Lists section. In addition, Site Type is used in nearly every filtering or selection process, so it is the most important field for site categorization.

This button opens the Site Attributes dialog, which is a list of attribute fields (including some of those above). In general, these attributes are used to filter out acceptable sites for a reservation, using the More Site Preferences dialog on the New Reservation dialog. The site attributes here will correspond to the site preferences for a reservation.

Any attributes that are set will also show up in the Quick-Info window (double-click on a site name in tab views), so they can provide useful information to a customer when making a reservation.

The initial database will have many typical attributes by default. You will want to disable any that don’t apply to your campground, and may want to rename a few to something more applicable. (This is done through Define Data Fields.) The number and the detail of these selections will depend on your campground – a large diversified RV resort may have sites with many different attributes to choose from, while a small campground with mostly similar sites may only have a few. If you are extremely familiar with your park and each site’s peculiarities, you may actually never use site attributes/preferences when choosing a site for a customer.

There are several different types of site attributes, and setting them in the Site Attributes is a little different for each one. In general, if you plan to use the Site Preferences dialog to select sites, you should set these fields appropriately for every site. If you leave an attribute blank, then the site may be assumed to be a match anyway (because the software doesn’t know if it’s a match or not). To enter any attribute, click on the right-hand cell next to the name and type the value, or double-click on the cell to drop down a pick list. If you’re editing several in a row, you can use Tab after each one to step to the next one.

Pick-Lists – These are simple drop-down lists, including the Site Type, Site Class, etc. Just select the appropriate selection for each site. If you leave it blank, the site will match to any request for that attribute. Note that some of these are duplications of the fields on the Site Setup dialog, and setting them here will also be reflected in the Site Setup dialog.

Sizes – Some attributes are sizes, such as maximum rig length. Sizes are assumed to be measured in feet. You should put an appropriate size here, so that any request for that size or smaller will be a match. Just type in a number, no punctuation or other characters (for instance, type 45, not 45 feet). If you leave it blank, any size request will be considered a match.

Yes/No attributes – These are fields that are either true or false, like Has Water, Has Sewer, etc. Their value can be either Yes or No, which can be chosen from the drop-down list. Alternatively, you can just click the field and press the Y or N key. If you leave one of these fields blank, it will match any request whether the customer requests that it must have it or must not have it. Therefore you should always set these one way or another, unless it’s an attribute where you can add or remove the item when needed (like "Has Picnic Table").

Distances and Ratings – These attributes are "ratings", and have a value of 1 to 5. Either way, a 1 means "low" (or "far") and a 5 means "high" (or "close"). For instance, Distance to Pool would be 5 for the closest sites and 1 for the farthest sites. View Rating would be 5 for a great view, 1 for a poor view. If the customer requests "Must Have" for one of these attributes, they will currently be a match as long as the value is 3 or above, or if it is blank (meaning not applicable or unknown). If they request "Must Not Have" then it will be a match if the score is 3 or lower. (Thus a rating of 3 will always be a match.) Future versions of the software will generate scores based on the how well the values match, and allow selection by how well a site score compares with the requests.

This flag can be set when you want to completely eliminate a site from being used. This will eliminate it from the Rack, the Quick-Pick drop-down list for New Reservations, and the Occupancy Report. However, any existing past or future reservations with this site will still show up in other historical reports.

This is useful if you have eliminated sites from the campground for an undetermined time, or forever. It’s better to set this than to actually delete the site from the database, because it will still be used in reports and reservation histories.

These represent the lower and upper limits on the number of nights allowed for a site. For instance, if you have sites where you only allow short-term stays, you can enter a 30-day maximum. Likewise, you can enter minimum stays for sites that are limited to extended stays. Only enter the number of days here without text, e.g. just enter "30" for 30 days or a month, not "30 days" or "1 month".

These limits are used on the New Reservation dialog when Show Available is selected. Any sites that are not allowed for the number of nights of the reservation will not be shown in the mini-rack when Show Available is checked.

If these are enabled, you will see fields for the Reading and the Date, and a button to View the reservation that the meter was last read by. The reservation button will be disabled if the last reading was entered manually (on this dialog) rather than entered as a reservation transaction. The date will be disabled if no reading has been entered (which typically means that this site does not have a meter).

Assuming this site supports meter(s), you will first set up the site by entering the current reading (or the last reading that has been charged for). The date will automatically change to today’s date when a value is entered, but you can override that if needed. If a meter is brand new and has a "0" reading, you should still enter a 0 in the Reading field so that the site is flagged as having a meter.

There is no way to select a reservation for the reading other than going to that reservation and entering a transaction for the meter reading. This is the way it should be done whenever a reservation is paying for the electricity/water. Otherwise the reservation link will be cleared. Also note that if it’s important that you have the reservation information when first entering the meter readings, this could be done by entering it as a transaction for the reservation (you can delete the charge afterwards but the site will remain updated).

This field is used to specify the dates that a site is normally available. This information is used for showing what sites are available for a given date and also can be used to generate more accurate reporting. While it’s possible to create a reservation that covers dates that are "out of season", you would be warned before doing so. These dates will also show up on the Quick-Info window for sites (seen when double-clicking on a site name in the tab views), and any sites not available due to the season dates (or the special dates below) will be shown in a different color on the Rack (typically gray)

Dates in this field and the other two Special Dates fields can be entered as single dates or as date ranges. You can also enter dates without the year if you want to specify dates that apply the same to every year, but this only applies to the Season Dates, not the Special Dates. If you leave this field blank, it means that the site is available all year long (so there’s no need to enter 1/1 to 12/31, and in fact that could slow the software down slightly).

Note that the dates in these fields will be entered in the "regional" format according to your computer’s settings – for instance, month/day for U.S., and day/month for Canadian, etc. U.S. format is used in the examples.

There is no limit to the number of dates or date ranges you can enter, and the field will scroll as needed. Separate each date range with a comma. A space after the comma is optional (it will be inserted automatically when displayed). The format of a date is fairly flexible as long as if follows the month/day/year convention. Each range should include two dates separated by the word "to". Here are some examples of valid range entries:

1/1 to 9/30, 11/1 to 12/31 (note there are no years, so it applies to every year)

1/2/2002 to 4/3/02 (years can be 2 or 4 digits)

10-5-01, 10-7-01 to 12-31-01 (single dates can be entered, and you can use the dash in a date)

Regardless of the date format you use, it will be changed to a common format (mm/dd/yyyy) after you save the information. If you make a mistake in an entry, it will warn you when you click Save and ask you to fix it.

While you could clear out old date ranges once that year has passed, you may want to leave them so that reporting is still accurate for past years.

Special Dates Available take precedence over season dates in determining if a site is available. Even if you have specific seasons, there may be times when you want to make some sites available out of season. You could just adjust the Season Dates if you enter the dates for each year separately, but if you use the same Season Dates every year (entered without years, like 3/1 to 9/30) then you need to enter any exceptions in this field.

The Special Dates Available field follows the same formatting as Season Dates, with the exception that they should always have a year in them. (Otherwise you would be better off adjusting the Season Dates.) They will also show up in the Quick-Info window for sites. It’s OK to have dates here that are considered available by the seasons anyway, but it would add work for the software so it’s best to avoid overlapping dates. Note that dates can also be made available from the Make Site Available function on the Rack view right-click menu. This field will change accordingly with the added date(s).

This is the highest priority of the date fields. If a date is included here, the site will be considered unavailable this date even if the same date is in both of the Dates Available lists above. Use this to make a site unavailable at any time, such as for maintenance. Dates in this list should always have years in them. They will show up in the Quick-Info window for sites, and will show up as a different color on the Rack. Note that dates can also be made unavailable from the Make Site Available function on the Rack view right-click menu. This field will change accordingly with the added date(s).

If these fields are enabled, it allows you to indicate which days of the week the site is available on. (For speed reasons, don’t enable these fields unless it’s necessary.) The weekdays can be overridden by Special Dates Available or Special Dates Unavailable.

The Notes field has no particular use except that it shows up in the Quick-Info window for sites (double-click on a site name in the tab views), so you could check it before making a reservation. It can be any length and can contain any text you like.

This is a good place to put warnings or special features of a site, like "gets flooded easily" or "great site for bird-watchers". While it can’t be used for automated site selection, it might be a nice touch to put notes here that you can tell customers on the phone when they’re making a reservation.

Rates are basically a shortcut way of entering multiple transactions with pre-defined categories, descriptions, and dollar amounts (multiplied by the appropriate quantities). Taxes can be automatically applied, and you can specify what kind of quantity multipliers will be needed -- a number of day/weeks/months, or number of sites, or a variable quantity such as number of gallons. The primary use for rates is for site rental rates and add-on charges, but they can also be used for electric and water meter support, merchandise, credits, and anything else for which you want to "memorize" transactions.

Start by opening the Rates Setup dialog. This will list any rates already defined, with their Rate Type, Rate Code, Rate Name, and a value for Each item. From here you will add or edit rates, delete obsolete rates, and move rates in the list. Moving is important because the order that they appear here will be the same order they appear when they are selected when entering transactions. Therefore you may want to put them in a logical order, or put the most-used rates at the top.

The dialog starts by showing All Rate Types (all rates defined), but you can select any of the other types to narrow down the list. If you select a specific type here, then that type will be assumed when you add or insert a new rate definition (but the type can be changed later). You can also Print the shown list at any time.

The basic procedure for defining a Rate is to select a rate type, click New or Insert, and then enter the details of the rate definition including the applicable site type, discount, taxes, dates, and each of the transactions (charges, etc.) that make up that rate. You can edit any of the existing rates by clicking on the rate in the list and selecting Edit rate definition, or you can double-click on the rate in the list.

Warning – Once a rate is edited or deleted, there is no way to Cancel the operation – these changes are permanent. (Moving rates is also "permanent" since there is no Cancel button, but you can always move it back.)

There are seven different rate types. While these types cannot be changed, you can have as many different rates of each type as you like. Note that the Rate Type for each rate can be changed later, so you can move them to a different category easily.

Rental Rate – This is for your basic site rates for daily, weekly, and so on for each Site Type you’ve defined. Of course if you have sites set up for things like craft halls, bicycles, etc., then those rental rates would also go here. You will likely define separate rental rates for each discount (none, Good Sam, FMCA, etc.), and you can also define the dates that each rate apply to. If you have different rate possibilities for one site type, for instance 30A and 50A service, you can either define these as two separate rental rates or define one base rate with a 50A add-on. The choice may depend on how many different rates you will have (to keep the lists short), or how you want it to appear on the receipts (as one rate charge or as two charges; one for base and one for the add-on).

Add-On – This is for any extra charges on top of base rental rates, such as for 50A electric, phone, extra people or vehicles, and so on. However if your rate structure is very simple, you may elect to put the add-ons in the Rental Rate section so that they are all listed together, or perhaps just set up separate rental rates for with and without the add-on.

Electric Meter and Water Meter – These are special rate types for meter readings. They are special types because when they are used, a dialog will pop up to enter the new reading – the site information is updated automatically and it will put the meter readings in the transaction descriptions. When defining the transactions for these types, a suggested item description for the charge is something like "Metered kwh:", so it comes out on the receipt like "Metered kwh: (1000-800)". Note that these rate types will always appear in the list when setting up rates, but they will not appear when selecting rates for transactions unless you have sites set up with electric or water meters enabled.

Credit – You can use this rate type for any standard credits that you apply, such as coupons, rain-out credits, etc. You don’t need to use this for discounts like Good Sam, since you can define rental rates with the discounts included. You probably also won’t use this for refunds, since those can be handled by selecting the appropriate rental rate and applying it as a negative charge.

Merchandise – This rate type can be used for any non-rental merchandise, such as propane, RV supplies, gift shop items, and so forth.

Miscellaneous – This is for "anything else" for which you want to memorize transactions. Typical uses would be for standard deposit transactions, cancellation fees, membership cards, tour packages, etc.

Again, the Rate Type selection for each rate you define is up to you. The only "special" types are the electric meter and water meter types. Keep in mind that the Rental Rate type will be the default rates shown when selecting rates for a transaction, so any rates defined as Rental Rates will be the quickest to select (any others will require two extra clicks to select the appropriate type from the list).

When you select New, Insert, or Edit from Rates Setup, the Edit Rate Definition dialog will appear. This is where you define all of the details of the rate.

Make sure that the desired Rate Type is selected (this can be changed any time), and enter a Rate Code and Description. The Rate Code is primarily used to select rates quickly with the keyboard, so it is optional but should be short and unique for each rate. (In future software versions it may also be used for reports.) The Description is shown in the rate selection list, so you should make it simple but also descriptive enough for easy recognition. If this rate is for a discount, for instance, you should indicate that in the description so the correct rate is chosen.

Next is the Transaction Template section. This operates just like the New Transactions dialog, except that no quantities are entered here. Add each transaction that you want to appear for this rate, and enter an Each amount (how much for each day, or week, or item, etc.). The Each amount will later be multiplied appropriately.

Typically you will simply enter a Charge transaction here, with the appropriate category, description, and amount. Note that in some cases the description will be modified later, for instance if the charge is for multiple sites, it may add "(5 days x 2 sites)" to the description. Electric and water meter charges also have their descriptions altered (see the Rate Types explanation above).

You can also add appropriate discounts here. For instance, it’s recommended that for a Good Sam rate of $18, you add a Charge for the standard rate or $20, and then add a Discount of $2. This will be more descriptive on the receipt and also allow you to generate reports about the discounts.

If you typically only add charges when the customer checks in, you could even include the Payment here to save a step later. Just be sure you delete or modify the resulting charge if they don’t pay in full when they check in. (Also see the notes about adding tax below.)

Important – Although you can add Tax transactions manually, it’s recommended that you use the Auto-add tax checkboxes instead. Otherwise you will have to edit every rate definition any time the tax rates change. The only exception to this would be for special cases where the tax does not apply to the entire rate charge (less discounts, credits, payments, etc.). For instance, if you add a Payment to the rate as mentioned above, the tax would be calculated on the $0 balance. Therefore you would have to add the tax as a separate transaction and not use the auto-add tax feature.

Now, assuming you didn’t add tax manually, check the appropriate Auto-add tax boxes. There is one box for each of the 4 possible Tax Rate definitions, but only those that are active will be enabled (and will show the selected category name for the tax). When you check these boxes, the With Tax amount is automatically calculated.

The rest of the dialog entries generally only apply to Rental Rate and Add-On rate types. However if this is any kind of merchandise or other item that may have more than one quantity, make sure that Ask for other quantity is checked. That way a Qty entry field will appear when you select this rate.

To have a rate multiplied by the number of days, weeks, etc. in the reservation, fill in the Rate is per field and select a period from the (# of) drop-down list (days, weeks, months, or years). Also be sure to check the Multiply by # of periods checkbox. Note that this and other multiplications are semi-automatic. A box will appear when the rate is selected with the number of periods filled in, but it can be changed before accepting the rate.

If this rate only applies to a certain Site Type, select that type from the drop-down list next to Applies only to Site Type. If no site type is selected, the rate will show up for any reservation. If you select a site type here, then that rate will only show up when a reservation is for that site type (or has a concurrent reservation of that type). If the rate applies to more than one site type but not all site types, then you will have to duplicate the rate for each site type (since only one Site Type can be selected for each rate), or else leave the Applies only to Site Type field blank so it will show up for all of them (and make sure the description is clear enough so it won’t be selected for the wrong site types).

For most rental rates you will want to check the box for Multiply by the # of concurrent sites. An extra box will appear when selecting this rate, with the number of sites to multiply by. If the number is greater than 1, then the description on the resulting charge(s) will be modified, with something like "(5 days x 3 sites)" added.

You can filter the rates by discount by either selecting a discount from the Applies only to Discount list, or by checking the Only applies if no discount used checkbox. (If this box is checked, the discount selection would be ignored). As with Site Type, this will determine whether the rate will appear in the rate selection list for a given reservation.

The Ask for other quantity checkbox can be checked for any rate, which will allow a separate quantity entry field to appear when the rate is selected. Generally this is not used for rental rates, but can be used for Add-On rates like extra people or vehicles, and for any other kind of rate.

You can define the dates for which any rate is applicable. This will be used whenever selecting a rate for a reservation, and will only show the rates that are applicable on at least one day of the reservation. For instance, if a reservation includes a holiday, you will see both the normal rate and the holiday rate in the selection list. Likewise, when you select the holiday rate, the quantity that appears for the number of days will be just the number of days that the reservation date occurs on the rate’s applicable dates.

For example, if the reservation is for 5 days and includes 3 holiday days (e.g. for a holiday weekend rate), then the holiday rate will be multiplied by 3 days and the normal rate will be multiplied by 2 days (assuming the rate’s dates are defined to me mutually exclusive). Although you will have to select both rates, the numbers will be handled for you automatically.

Defining dates for a Rate definition is just like defining dates that a Site is available.

This field is used to specify the dates for which the rate is applicable. Dates in this field and the other two Special Dates fields can be entered as single dates or as date ranges. You can also enter dates without the year if you want to specify dates that apply the same to every year, but this only applies to the Season Dates, not the Special Dates. If you leave this field blank, it means that the site is available all year long (so there’s no need to enter 1/1 to 12/31).

Note that the dates in these fields will be entered in the "regional" format according to your computer’s settings – for instance, month/day for U.S., and day/month for Canadian, etc. U.S. format is used in the examples.

There is no limit to the number of dates or date ranges you can enter, and the field will scroll as needed. Separate each date range with a comma. A space after the comma is optional (it will be inserted automatically when displayed). The format of a date is fairly flexible as long as if follows the month/day/year convention. Each range should include two dates separated by the word "to". Here are some examples of valid range entries:

1/1 to 9/30, 11/1 to 12/31 (note there are no years, so it applies to every year)

1/2/2002 to 4/3/02 (years can be 2 or 4 digits)

10-5-01, 10-7-01 to 12-31-01 (single dates can be entered, and you can use the dash in a date)

Regardless of the date format you use, it will be changed to a common format (like mm/dd/yyyy) after you save the information. If you make a mistake in an entry, it will warn you when you click Save and ask you to fix it.

You can clear out old date ranges once that year has passed (and add new ones for upcoming years). Unlike the dates for Sites, there is no need to keep old dates in the lists since you probably won’t be adding transactions to old reservations.

Important – When defining rates for different seasons, make sure that there are no gaps or else there may be times when no rates appear (or they don’t multiply by the correct number of dates). Likewise it’s a good idea to avoid overlapping. Therefore if you have a special holiday rate with a Season Date of 7/4, then your normal rate definition should have 7/4 in its Special Dates Not Applicable Field to exclude that date from the normal rate.

Special Dates Applicable take precedence over season dates in determining if a site is available. Even if you have specific seasons, there may be times when you want to make some rates available out of season. You could just adjust the Season Dates if you enter the dates for each year separately, but if you use the same Season Dates every year (entered without years, like 3/1 to 9/30) then you need to enter any exceptions in this field.

The Special Dates Available field follows the same formatting as Season Dates, with the exception that they should always have a year in them. (Otherwise you would be better off adjusting the Season Dates.) They will also show up in the Quick-Info window for sites. It’s OK to have dates here that are considered applicable by the season dates anyway, but it would add work for the software so it’s best to avoid overlapping dates.

Note – Since this is an exception list, you can’t just put the normally applicable dates here – use the Season Dates field for the normal range. The Special Dates Available list simply overrides "out of season" dates to be applicable.

This is the highest priority of the date fields. If a date is included here, the rate will be considered not applicable on this date even if the same date is in both of the Dates Applicable lists above. Dates in this list should always have years in them.

These checkboxes allow you to indicate which days of the week the rate is applicable on, which is handy for specifying weekday / weekend rates. Note that the weekdays selected can be overridden by Special Dates Applicable or Special Dates Not Applicable, so take care in specifying special dates in these cases.

If you don't have any sites that are available based on the day of the week, then you should disable these fields (see Define Data Fields). This will improve the speed of the program.

The Notes field is just for your own notes, perhaps an explanation of why a rate is set up the way it is. The Notes are never seen by the customer or by an operator selecting a rate. It can be any length.

The Operator Setup dialog can only be viewed by an operator with Administrator access, because all operator passwords are visible here. This is where an administrator will set up all operator logins for the software. Note that since the operator table is stored with the database, operators will be backed up and restored with it. This is necessary because the operator information is logged with every reservation and transaction. If you start a new database, you will need to set up new operators for it.

There must always be at least one operator defined with Administrator access. (Otherwise you could never access critical functions, or add an operator that could.) Therefore, if a database is loaded that does not have an Administrator operator, you will see a warning and it will automatically set one of the operators to Administrator (it will tell you which one). A new Administrator operator will be added if no operators exist.

By default, the database will start with one operator, with Administrator access. The login parameters for this operator will be:

Login: Administrator

Password: Password

Obviously this is not a secure situation – besides being too obvious, anyone with access to this manual (or the software’s Help function) can find out how to get in to the system. Therefore you should immediately change this operator information. At the very least, change the password to something not easily guessed.

Also, you should assign the Administrator access level very sparingly. While it would be convenient to make yourself (or everyone) an administrator, it opens up the possibilities of making disastrous changes by mistake. We recommend having one or two administrator logins assigned, and make them in addition to the logins you use on a daily basis. The campground managers should have Manager access for daily use, and any other users should have Reservations or Clerk access as appropriate.

Always keep your Administrator login(s) recorded and in a secure place where you can remember where to find it. It might be months before you need to use it, so relying on your memory for the password is not a good idea. If you forget the administrator login, it is possible for Cottonwood Software to retrieve it, given a copy of the database file. However it is a hassle (and possible support expense) that you’ll want to avoid.

If necessary, you may delete operators from the system. It won’t cause a problem in the database since the actual operator code, rather than a link to the record, is stored in reservations and transactions. However, you probably won’t want to delete operators once they are used because you can show Transaction reports based on operator, and operators can only be selected for reports if they are still in the database. If you need to "lock out" an operator, you can either change the operator’s password or change the access level to Guest, which would prevent the operator from making any changes to the data.

The Operator Code is the text that will be shown anywhere in the system when referring to the operator (e.g. in reservation and transaction dialogs, report filtering, and the program caption when the operator is logged in). This should be a fairly short word, typically the operator’s first or last name. Make sure it is unique (and easy to recognize), since it’s used to identify this operator. No two operators should have the same operator code. This code should never be changed once it is in use, since that would have the same problems as deleting the operator (see above).

The Login is the operator’s ID used when logging in. It’s never seen anywhere else in the system, so it can be whatever the operator prefers. It can be the same as the Operator Code, or it can be different. Login names are not case sensitive, so for instance "Walter" is the same as "walter" or "WALTER". This may be changed at any time without any affect on the program or database.

Login names must be unique. Don’t use the same login for more than one operator, because it will only see the first one with a given login name when checking the password.

The Password is used by the operator when logging in. Like the Login name, it can be anything the operator wants, and is not case sensitive. It does not have to be unique – any number of operators can have the same password. Of course this should not be done on purpose – it’s best for each operator to have a unique password, but if two people choose the same password it will not be a problem.

This defines the operator’s key to the system. There are five different access levels, with increasing access to program functions. They are checked for many different functions, most of which are covered separately with the function descriptions elsewhere in the manual. Here are then general descriptions of the levels:

Guest – minimal access, can only view the Rack. Cannot make any data changes or save the database (thus cannot make a backup or save a copy somewhere else). Essentially the same as nobody logged in.

Clerk – has access to transactions and functions suitable for a point-of-sale or to accept payment for reservations, but cannot make or change reservations, perform any maintenance functions, or make program option changes.

Registrations – Can access any reservation functions, but cannot access transaction reports or the Other Reports menu, change program options, back up or restore the database, or perform other maintenance functions.

Manager – Can access all report and option functions, plus backup and restore the database, but cannot access other maintenance functions.

Administrator – can do anything.

The Notes field is only seen on Operator Setup dialog, so it can be used for any notes the administrator wants to make about an operator. Like other notes fields, it can be any length and format. Typical notes might be phone numbers or other contact information (in case a question arises), and information about temporary operators (like work campers) that might be of interest years from now by new campground managers (or auditors).

Pick Lists are the tables of values used to make data entry quicker. In addition, they are useful in limiting possible values for certain fields so that data integrity is assured, and so that meaningful categorized reports can be generated. The pick lists for site attributes also help categorize sites to make site selection easier.

A new database is initialized with populated pick lists that serve as a guide. While some of the entries may be useful, you will likely want to remove and change some, and add some of your own. This is done easily with the dialogs. A pick list may be any length, but use discretion when filling them – long lists are more difficult to choose from, and can cause problems displaying the list in a drop-down box if your screen is too small.

The order of the items in each pick list is important – this is the order in which they will always appear in the drop-down lists or other selection lists. Besides making the order logical to the operator, you will want to pay attention to the first letters of the items, because those can be used to quickly select the items. You can try to make each first letter unique, but if that results in confusing names then the next best would be to put the most-used items toward the top. Or instance, if you have "Tent" and "Trailer" in the Rig Types list in that order, pressing T will select Tent, and pressing T again will select Trailer. If you use Trailer much more that Tent, you might want to switch the order so that Trailer comes up first. (Or in this case you can just remember that TT means Travel Trailer, a convenient coincidence since TT is often an abbreviation for Travel Trailer.)

You can add pick list items any time you like. So if you add cabins to your campground, you can easily add a Site Class and/or Site Type for cabins. You can even insert it into the list anywhere you like, since the order of the lists don’t matter to the database – it won’t cause problems with existing records. The Index field is the important part (that’s how the pick list items are referenced), and you will see that when you move pick list items around in the list, their Index stays with them. When you add or insert a new item, a new unique Index will be generated for it automatically.

For this same reason, once the pick-list is in use you should never change the names of pick list items to something that has a different meaning, and you should never delete a pick-list item. (Note that when a pick list item is deleted, its Index is discarded and cannot be re-used, so there is no way to get it back short of restoring the database from a backup!) Of course if you’re sure that an item has never been used in a database record, then it would be safe to delete or change. If you stop having a need for one of the items (for instance if you no longer accept one of the payment types), the best thing to do is to just move it to the bottom of the list. It will still be available for reporting, and more importantly it won’t corrupt the database, but will be out of the way.

On the other hand, you are free to change the text for any pick list item. As long as it still represents the same thing, it won’t cause any harm. The new name will be shown in any existing records that used the pick list item automatically (because the Index field is unchanged), so feel free to make changes like "highway sign" to "road sign" or "billboard". But don’t make changes like "Visa" to "Discover" – use the Move Up and Move Down functions instead, if you just need to change their position.

Each of the Pick List editing dialogs consists of a grid with the pick list table and some controls at the top. The controls are detailed below.

Warning! -- All changes made in this dialog are permanent, there is no way to cancel them!

Allow Editing of Fields – This is simply a safeguard against accidental changes. By default, all of the dialog’s controls except Print and Close will be disabled, but you can look around the table. If you plan to make changes, check this box so that the controls are enabled and you can make changes in the grid.

New Record – This will add a new pick list item to the bottom of the list and move the cursor to it, ready for typing.

Insert Record – This is used to insert a new item in the list somewhere other than the bottom. First click on the item in the grid that you want the new item to be in front of. Click Insert, and a new pick list item will be added at that point, moving the others down.

Move Up and Move Down – Use these to move items in the list to new positions. Just click on the item to move, then click the Move Up or Move Down button.

Print List – This will print the pick list grid. It uses all of the same print options as used for the other grids (tab views, etc.).

Delete Selected Record(s) – This will delete (permanently!) any of the items selected in the grid. Just select one of more items (using Shift-Click to select a range or Ctrl-click to select multiple items), and click the Delete button.

Close – closes the dialog. Since all changes were already made immediately, there is no Cancel option.

The Grid – This is the list of pick list records (items). If editing is enabled, you can edit any text (except the Index field) by clicking on the cell and typing (which will replace the existing text with what you type), or by double-clicking on the cell to enter edit mode (where you can edit the text without deleting it). Note that while you are in a cell, you can abort the changes by pressing the Esc key. Once you leave the cell, however, the changes are permanent. Any cells that have been changed will be shown with a light yellow background.

You may notice that the grid can’t be sorted by a column the way most other grids can. This is because the order of the items is important, and sorting (even temporarily) could cause confusion when adding items to the list.

All of the pick lists have the same fields.

Index – This is the software-generated unique identifier for an item. It cannot be edited.

Abbr. (4) – This is a short version of an item name (4 characters recommended). It’s used in a few places where space is short, such as the Requests column on the Arrivals tab and the Type column for sites on the Rack.

Normal Text – This is the text normally displayed in drop-down lists and the fields on dialogs and reports. It should be limited to about 10 or 12 characters so that it fits in the drop-down lists without being truncated.

Long (40 characters) – This can be a longer version of the text, but is not currently used by the software.

Description (80 characters) – This can be a long description, but is not currently used by the software.

This is used for the customer’s Rig Type field. You can define them to be generic (RV, tent, boat), or you can be more specific (Fifth wheel, class A, diesel, etc.). It all depends on how specific you want your records to be or what information is helpful to you for making reservations. You may want to include a "none" value to be used for guests or if you have cabins, etc. where there is no rig needed. Future software versions may support rig type categorization or filtering for reports, so keep that in mind as well.

Site Class is a site attribute that can be used for selecting a site (in a reservation’s site preferences). It’s intended to be a fairly generic selection of the type of accommodation needed, such as an RV site, tent, cabin, boat, pavilion, etc. The Site Type attribute would be used for more specific selection, so Site Class can be used when the site type is not critical. Just define site classes for the types of accommodations or other rentals you will be defining sites for.

This is a site attribute that can be used for selecting a site (in a reservation’s site preferences). Pad Type selections would typically refer to the type of material that an RV parking space uses, such as grass, gravel, concrete, etc. Pad types usually refer to RV sites, but you could also include useful selections for cabins (bed type?) or other types if needed.

This is a site attribute that can be used when making a reservation (site preferences), if the customer has a preference for which way a site faces. It is initialized with common directions (North, West, Southeast, etc.), but it could be used it for something more descriptive, replacing the directions with something like "Lakefront", "Pool", "Golf", and "Playground". (There are other attribute fields in the Site table that could handle this as well, but if direction is not a concern then this may be a better way to handle other attributes.)

This is the most important of the site attributes, since it’s used on nearly every report for filtering sites and is also used as the basic criteria for selecting appropriate sites. The design of this list can vary greatly for different campgrounds. Selections can be as generic or specific as you like, but keep in mind that the longer the list is, the more awkward it will be to use. Design a list that will be useful for filtering and provide useful reporting categories, and that would work well in the tab views where you can select only one site type.

Remember that there are a number of site attributes than can be used to narrow down a search, so you don’t need to have separate Site Types for every combination of 30A/50A, pull-through, sewer, pad type, etc. On the other hand, if all of your sites are basically the same except that some are pull-through and some are not, and perhaps some of the non-pull-through sites have only 30A, then that’s only 3 different combinations and would be very manageable as 3 Site Type selections. But if you have more than 5 combinations of site features, then it may not make sense to use each combination as a different Site Type.

This list is used in the reservation records, and is simply to indicate how the customer heard about the campground, or if they are returning customer. It’s used primarily for tracking advertising results, in the How Heard Report. This list can get fairly long if you include every possibility, but if that’s the information you need then you should let it be long and specific. If you don’t do any advertising and only want to know whether they are a return visitor or not, you can use it for that too.

One unique feature of this list is that there should always be an item with "Return visit" as its Name text. It doesn’t matter where it is in the list or even what Index it has, it just needs to have that exact text (without the quotes of course). This will allow the "Return Visit" item to be selected automatically for a reservation when you select an existing customer from the customer database. It won’t break anything if you don’t have that selection, but you would lose that bit of automation – the How-heard field would just need to be selected manually.

This list is used for the pay method in any payment-type transactions. Simply include the different types of payment that you accept, to the extent that they are useful for reporting or keeping track of how a bill was paid. You can include anything from credit cards to green stamps if it helps. It’s usually a good idea to include the different types of credit cards (Visa, Discover, etc.) rather than one "credit card" field, for the sake of reporting. If you take multiple currencies, you might even want to distinguish between U.S. and Canadian cash, for instance.

This list is used for the Discount-Used field of charge-type transactions, to indicate what discount was used in the calculations (and of course for the Discount transactions themselves). Just include an entry for each type of club discount you accept, plus anything else applicable like Seniors, Students, and perhaps one for Other (you never know when you might give a discount just because the poor guy looks like he’s had a bad day).

This list is used for the Category field of most transactions. It should include various categories for the types of charges, plus any categories you need for Expense and Misc. Income. You may want to keep these from overlapping each other or the charges categories, so they can all appear as separate ledger categories.

The list should also contain a special category entry for each of the built-in transaction types (Discount, Payment, Refund, etc.) – These will be pre-defined and marked "(DO NOT DELETE)" in the description field. Don’t delete them! They can be moved, but you probably want to keep them at the bottom out of the way, so you don’t select them for other transactions. If for some reason they are deleted, they will be added again automatically the next time you load the database, but damage will have already been done to the database. This is because the Index fields will be different when they are re-added, so old reports may not come out right and printing receipts for previous transactions could be a problem.

Each of the Data Tables selections of the Maintenance menu will open a dialog with a grid showing one of the complete data tables. If you’ve been using the system for awhile, be sure you have some time to wait if you open the Reservation or Transactions tables, as these can be large and slow to open. These dialogs can only be accessed by an operator with Administrator access.

In general, these data table functions should be used only by someone who is very familiar with the database, because they contain some internal fields that aren’t normally seen and major damage can be done if things are changed or records deleted. On the other hand, this is the only place that some database "corrections" can be done. This manual won’t cover any specifics about this, but access to these tables may be required when calling for support. Each table has an Allow Editing of Fields checkbox, which is disabled by default, so that the tables can be browsed without worry.

That said, there are some good uses for the data tables for certain tasks.

One potential use for the data tables is to print a list of customers, for instance. You need to use caution because the grid printout can be very large and will result in a report several pages "wide" as well as "tall". You can minimize the printing by using the Print Preview to figure out which pages are of interest. Then when you Print you can enter the start and end pages. If you need pages that are not in continuous range, like 1, 5, and 9, then you need to do three separate Print operations with the start and end pages both set to 1, then both set to 5, then both set to 9.

The grid on data table dialogs can be sorted by any column by clicking on the column header. This can make them potentially useful for finding a particular record, since all fields are available to sort by.

The Sites data table can be very useful if you are setting up your sites and have a lot of site information to enter. Because the grids used here allow you to copy many fields at a time, and make many copies of a field, it can dramatically speed up the process. For instance, it can take only a few seconds to set hundreds of Site Type fields to the same value.

You may have noticed that the Parks table is not represented in the Data Tables menu. This is because the Parks setup requires special handling due to the authorization codes, and cannot be manually edited.

Aside from the uses mentioned above, no changes to data tables should be attempted without consulting with the Cottonwood Software support staff first.

The Data Tables dialogs themselves are very similar to the Pick List dialogs. There is a grid for the table with one record in each row. The controls are the same as well, except that only the Sites table has the Move Up and Move Down buttons (records in the other tables have no reason to be moved).

You will also see a new checkbox on some of them: Show Links as Index values. When this is selected, any fields that use relation links to other tables (for instance the Site field in Reservations) will show the numeric index value instead of the human-readable form (e.g. the site name). This is for troubleshooting purposes only.

Warning – Remember that the Sites table and the Operators table are the only ones that are reasonably safe to edit here. The other tables are generated by the software and should only be edited by an expert.

Warning – There is no Cancel button – any change you make to the tables is instant and permanent. This also applies to Deleting records.

Editing data tables is basically the same as for pick lists. One thing that can be useful, particularly on the Sites table, is the multi-copy operations. You can do two different kinds of multi-cell copying that can be useful.

This can be used to copy a cell to multiple cells in a column, multiple cells in a row, or a combination (multiple rows and columns in a rectangle).

Note that if it doesn’t work, it may be that one or more cells in the range does not accept the copied text as a valid value. (Cell validation is done each time you change a cell, which could abort the entire paste operation.) Also make sure you have the Allow Editing of Fields box checked.

This allows you to highlight a range of cells in a row or column or rectangle and copy them all to another location as a group. It can only make one copy of the cells at a time, however (e.g. you can’t highlight one column and copy it to multiple columns at once).

Note that the copied cells are still on the clipboard after the paste, so if you need to paste multiple groups then you can repeat steps 4 and 5 over and over as needed. This is useful for copying many fields in one record to multiple other records.

The Campground Master database allows flexibility in what information is stored, both for future expansion and to minimize the amount of "useless" information presented. The Define Data Fields section of the Maintenance menu allows many of the pre-defined data fields to be disabled or enabled to fit the customer’s needs. Some of them can also be redefined for further customization (particularly the Attribute fields for site attribute/preferences).

Obviously this is dangerous and should only be attempted by software experts. An Administrator access level is required to access these lists. The information below is presented for reference, but no changes should be attempted without consulting with Cottonwood Software first.

Each of the Data Fields dialogs looks the same. It is simply a grid with buttons for Print List and Close. Unlike the Data Table and Pick List dialogs, there is no "Allow Editing" safeguard.

Each data field definition consists of the following elements (treated like fields in a record or pick list):

Field ID – This is not editable, and is the way the field is identified internally to the software.

Status – This is either "Fixed", "Enabled", or "Disabled" (see below).

Abbr. – A 4-character abbreviation for the field, for when a short header is needed.

Normal Header – The name of the field as usually seen in the program, such as for column headers.

Long Name – A longer name for the field, only used for Attribute fields.

Description – A longer description for the field, not currently used.

The main item of interest is the Status. If it’s "Fixed", that means the field is enabled permanently and cannot be changed. Many fields are set this way by default because the program logic depends on them. If the status is "Enabled", then the field will be visible and usable by the software, and if it’s "Disabled" then the field will be ignored by the software. A disabled field would not show up on the Data Table dialogs, and is treated just like a blank field if it’s queried by the software.

You may want to disable fields that you’re not interested in. In most cases, disabling a field will remove its field from dialogs (resulting in less clutter and faster data entry). In a few cases, it will affect the logic of the program. There may be cases where the affects are unpredictable and potentially even cause the program to abort, which is why these should not be changed without the proper expertise.

Fields that are safe to disable include most of the attribute fields (but not the Site Type), customer discount fields (Good Sam, etc.), the vehicle information in customer records, and the number of adults, children, etc. in customers and reservations. You can also disable the reservation flags for Guaranteed, Confirmed, Don’t Move, Comp (free) Site, Extended, and Group, and the Estimated Arrival Time.

Some fields are Disabled by default. This is because some fields are not needed by most campgrounds but can be enabled if needed. This includes many of the less common attribute fields, some features like metered water, etc. You can change the status to Enabled if you need them.

Warning – If you change a field to "Fixed", you will not be able to disable it later!

You can also change the Normal Header element of any field, which will affect the header in a few reports but in most cases will have no effect (for instance, it won’t change the name of a field in a dialog). The one exception to this is Attribute fields, discussed next.

One Final Warning – all changes to the data field tables are instant and permanent! It is easy to undo status changes between enabled to disabled, but avoid using Fixed status and be careful about changing field text!

This is one area of field definition where it is safe and encouraged to set them up to meet your campground’s needs. But there are several rules to follow.

The most important rule is that this applies only to fields that have a Field ID starting with Attrib_. These fields are recognized by the software to be attribute fields, and will show up in both the Site Preferences list from New Reservation dialogs and the Site Attributes list from the Site Setup dialog. The same Field ID’s are used in both the Sites table and the Reservations table, although the reservation fields would more appropriately be called "preferences" rather than "Attributes".

The next rule is to make sure that the Attribute fields in the Site data fields table matches the Attribute fields in the Reservation data fields table. This means that the same ones must be enabled in each table, and that they should have compatible names (the Normal Header text). We say "compatible" names because they don’t have to be exactly the same text, but should make sense as an attribute/preference pair. For instance, you may have a site attribute of "Has Patio" and a corresponding reservation attribute (i.e. preference) of "Needs Patio".

Now that you know the rules, here’s what you can do. You can disable any of the attributes that don’t apply to your campground, to shorten the list of options for the operator to choose from. You can also change the text for any of them to make them more applicable, within reason. You should not change the Site Type field or Site Class field. Also be aware that if you change the ones that appear in the dialogs separately, like the Site Facing, Pad Width, etc. that appear on the Site Setup dialog, the dialog text for the field name will not change, so it could be confusing. The names and text definitions of the others can be changed as needed.

The Abbr. text is used in the Requests column of the tab views.

The Normal Header text is used in the Preferences and Attributes dialogs when selecting them.

What you can’t do is change any of the field types. Therefore you should know the field type before changing what it’s used for. There are several fields of each type (size fields, yes/no fields, and ratings fields) so that you should be able to find enough to suit your needs. You could even modify the pick-list fields normally used for Site Facing and Pad Type if you need different pick-list attributes.

First Night and Last Night fields -- The Normal Header of these fields is used throughout the program for report header columns and on the receipt forms. While the default is First Night and Last Night, you may change these if needed, for instance to First Day and Last Day.

These are the default pick lists created for a New Database. If your campground database has been set up already, then yours may be different than these lists. They are shown here as an example.