For accounting, Ranger provides linkages to QuickBooks - the #1 rated business accounting software for small- and medium-sized businesses. The benefits of using QuickBooks (vs. accounting functionality within Ranger) Include:

• More robust functionality that is designed to accommodate multiple businesses (different legal entities) and different types of businesses (e.g., towing vs. body shop)
• Provides for the full scope of business accounting needs - from revenue to expenses to accounts payable/receivable to fixed assets - for the preparation of Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Federal/State/Local Tax Returns.
• Is supported by large ongoing investment from Intuit to improve functionality and ease of use

There are a few guiding principles that create the framework for the linkage of Ranger to QuickBooks

• QuickBooks is the authoritative source of all accounting information and the record of reference for preparing financial statements and tax returns
• Ranger is an input source to QuickBooks - providing all of the necessary detail to record the appropriate revenue from the towing and recovery business. Information flows from Ranger to QuickBooks - one-way. Changes to records in QuickBooks do not flow back to Ranger
• With appropriate User Permissions, Ranger provides flexibility to identify and correct errors in revenue calculations for each job before sending information to QuickBooks. However, once sent to QuickBooks, records are “locked” in Ranger and no further edits are possible
• Ranger provides management reporting that enables the assessment of business trends - e.g., revenue growth/decline of offerings and/or accounts. While this reporting is almost always “roughly right”, there may be minor discrepancies vs. accounting data if changes were made in QuickBooks after records were downloaded from Ranger

There are three major building blocks in configuring the connection between QuickBooks and Ranger. All must be made ready before triggering the connection.

• QuickBooks Software - At the Towing Company. This software, purchased from Intuit, is an application that is either loaded on your local computers, or that can be accessed over the Internet using QuickBooks Online. The configuration of this software is an important prerequisite, should reflect the information needs of senior business managers, and is often designed in consultation with the company accountant (who will ideally be an experienced user of QuickBooks)
• QuickBooks Web Connector. This tool is a software application that runs on Microsoft Windows that enables specially designed web-based applications, such as Ranger, to exchange data with QuickBooks. It can be downloaded for free from http://marketplace.intuit.com/webconnector/. A file from Ranger (named “rangersst”) is needed to appropriately configure the Web Connector. The Web Connector is used whenever it is appropriate for Ranger DispatchDirectTM to communicate with QuickBooks - e.g., sending weekly invoice information
• Ranger DispatchDirectTM. This solution is the engine for tracking, pricing, storing, and reporting revenue-related transactions. DispatchDirectTM manages call taking for new service requests, calculates the appropriate charges for each job based on the specified rates for each account, creates the equivalent of invoices for each job/account, and transforms this information into records that can be “exported” to QuickBooks

DispatchDirectTM captures revenue information at a very “granular” level of detail. For example, each job is associated with a product/service offering (Vehicle Class/Service Offering) and the total charges for a call is the result of adding multiple components, some of which are user-defined (see Pricing Templates):

• On-scene (service call) and Towing Charges; or GOA charges
• Mileage
• Labor
• Upcharges, such as a fuel surcharge
• Discounts
• Extras
• Taxes (amounts collected from customers)

Ranger will provide management reporting along multiple dimensions - revenue by account and/or by offering and/or by individual pricing elements such as Mileage. Descriptive information related to the services delivered (e.g., PO #, service rendered: Vehicle Class/ Service Offering) can be included.

QuickBooks must be configured before linking to Ranger. The first major decision is to determine how much detail should be forwarded to QuickBooks. At a minimum, revenue should be recorded and sent by Account (customer) and by job. However, there is flexibility to send much more revenue detail. Accommodating more detail in QuickBooks, requires added complexity in setting up the QuickBooks accounting structure and the linkages to DispatchDirectTM.

There are four broad options to consider:

1. Low Complexity - All components of the charges for a job are summarized in a single number - the Total Charges - and this amount is sent to QuickBooks (by Account, for each job). QuickBooks reporting would center on total sales/revenue, and sales by Account (customer) by period.
2. Medium Complexity v1 - In addition to the Total charges, each of the individual component parts of the charges are sent to QuickBooks. This requires setting up the line items in QuickBooks to collect those charges. In addition to revenue/sales by Account by period, QuickBooks would have detail to report revenue by source - e.g., tow charges, mileage, labor - for comparison to expense data, if so desired.
3. Medium Complexity v2 - In addition to the Total charges, each job would be further defined based on the Primary offering - Vehicle Class/Service Offering. This requires setting up the line Items in QuickBooks to collect charges by Vehicle Class/Service Offering (for the desired level of detail - see also Classes/Offerings). In addition to revenue by Account by period, QuickBooks would have the data to report revenue mix and trends by “Product/Service”. A variant of this approach would be to define only one of the two dimensions of an offering - just Vehicle Class (Light Standard, Light Luxury, Medium, Heavy), or just Service Offering (Towing Standard, Towing Emergency, Towing Hat Move).
4. High Complexity - QuickBooks is set up to report revenue by product/service offering (could be each primary cell in the matrix - see Classes/Offerings) and by the individual components making up the Total Charges. In this scenario, QuickBooks must be set up to have the “Items” for each Vehicle Class/Service Offering and for each of these to have line items for each component of the charges to a customer.

DispatchDirectTM can forward as much detail as desired into QuickBooks. From a practical perspective, we recommend the “Low” or “Medium” complexity set-up option, since detailed information is available in DispatchDirectTM for management analysis and queries. (Please contact Ranger if there is a management report that is needed, but not readily available in DispatchDirectTM.)

Since Ranger provides extensive management reporting, most customers opt for a much simpler setup in QuickBooks. However, the flip side: configuration and set-up is a one-time task - it's worth investing the “design time” to have an approach that fits what is needed for driving performance improvement and financial management. Ranger provides flexibility to accomplish your business objectives.

As mentioned earlier, over time, there is the potential for minor discrepancies between the numbers reported in Ranger and QuickBooks. The only variances will be changes made to records in QuickBooks - after records in Ranger have been “locked”.

If you are installing QuickBooks (QB) for the first time, the QB set-up wizard (“EasyStep Interview”) will guide the initial configuration process. Obviously, the configuration decisions need to reflect the character of the business. As recommended in QB, your accountant would be a helpful resource and should be consulted. For the Ranger test company (ABC Company) that is used as an example in this narrative, the following configuration choices were made:

• General Service-Based business
• Both products and services, to allow for the possibility of selling batteries or spare/replacement tires or other parts
• Use of statements, for the option to aggregate multiple monthly invoices
• No progress payments - invoicing occurs after a service has been delivered
• Tracking of inventory included, for future flexibility (parts sales?)
• Tracking of time to pay hourly employees; note Ranger will calculate inputs needed for commissions (manual inputs into QB)
• Additional expense categories again depend on the business. Some additional line items to consider
  • Business licenses and permits
  • Equipment rental
  • Taxes - Property

From this point, a new user will be guided through QuickBooks Setup to enter specific company information. The first of these information sets is “The people you do business with”. This provides a place to record information on vendors and customers. During the synchronization process, customer records will usually be linked based on the company short code. (There is an option to use the full name.) The recommended approach:

• For first-time QuickBooks users: go to the second section: “Add the products and services you sell”. When you synchronize, the accounts in DispatchDirectTM will be automatically entered into QuickBooks - no need to re-enter
• For established QuickBooks users: The synchronization between QuickBooks and DispatchDirectTM is usually based on the customer (Account) “short code”. It will generally be preferable for the “Company Name” of customers in QuickBooks to be the same as the corresponding Account “Code” (short code) in DispatchDirectTM

The setup process for products and services (“Items” in QB) is similar for first-time and established QuickBooks users. The first step is deciding the granularity of sales information that you will want to maintain in QuickBooks - understanding that there is more detail in Ranger for management reporting than may be appropriate for financial/tax accounting. Review the earlier section - Before You Start - Design Variables - for more information.

Established users may wish to retain the current QB “Items” for sales reporting. In this case, the next step becomes mapping these Items to sales details (the total and/or components of the total charges to a customer) in Ranger (skip to next section). If as an established QB user, there is interest in adding sales detail, this can be accomplished from “Lists-Items” in QuickBooks. There is an “Excel” button at the bottom of the QB dialogue box which creates the option to either “Import Items” or “Paste Items” from Excel. Developing the Excel spreadsheet is the same as described in this section for new users. Established QB users should consider when it would be best to modify record-keeping. For example: for purposes of comparability, there may be an advantage to implementing changes at the beginning of a reporting period (e.g., quarter, or fiscal year).

For both established and new users, we recommend first creating the list of new products and services for the company in Excel, rather than in QuickBooks. The capabilities to copy, edit , and review/check are much easier in Excel. In addition, QuickBooks makes it easy to import or copy/paste data from Excel. The example below, is a medium complexity case. Again, given the management reporting capabilities in Ranger, this will be overkill for many users. However, illustrating the key concepts in a more complex case will hopefully be of added help.

The case example - ABC Company - has defined the following offerings:

Business requirements for the case example: Provide reporting capabilities in QuickBooks to:

• Report sales “mix” by major revenue category, and track trends in these revenue categories over time (e.g., monthly trends, variance vs. last month)
• Develop selected operating indicators
  • Ratio of labor charges to customers vs. total company labor costs
  • Ratio of mileage charges to customers vs. total company fuel costs
  • Note: charges to customers would come from DispatchDirectTM, total company costs would come from QuickBooks accounting

As shown in the list below, to track business revenue mix, sales information in QuickBooks will be collected by Primary Vehicle Class (Light, Medium) and by Primary Service Offering (Towing, On-Scene). With this level of granularity, QuickBooks can roll-up total sales and split sales into 4 sub-categories for reporting. In this case:

• Light - Towing
• Light - On-scene
• Medium - Towing
• Medium - On-scene

In this example, to enable the analysis of the desired operating ratios, the detailed components that generate the total charge to a customer (e.g., Tow or Service charge, mileage, labor) will also be collected in QB. Each of these components will roll-up into one of the 4 sales/revenue categories as previously defined, and therefore must be separate QB “Items”. This approach would also be beneficial if it was important from an accounting perspective to have this detail available in QuickBooks - with QuickBooks being the authoritative source for financial reports and tax preparation.

Note that a QB “Item” must be created for Total Sales for each major sales category - 4 in this case. These entries provide the “home” for the sales roll-ups. They create the top level of the hierarchy that will be used in QuickBooks.

The power of Excel comes into play as follows:

1. Create one complete category: Name and description in the Excel spreadsheet.
2. Copy these entries (rows and columns) below the location of the original entries.
3. Use Find/Replace on the newly created cells to change the wording from “Light-Duty” to “Medium-Duty” or “Towing” to On-scene“, as appropriate.
4. Be careful not to create too much complexity just because it is easy.

Once a solid first draft has been created and checked in Excel, the draft can be copied into QuickBooks. From the setup wizard in QuickBooks,

• 1: Click the “Add” button in the row labeled “Add the products and services you sell”. QB will provide a table.

• 2: Using the spreadsheet, begin copying entries to QB. We recommend entering about 10 rows at a time, one column at a time to minimize problems in the copy/paste process.

• 3: If as in this case, there are more than 10 rows to insert, QuickBooks will provide a prompt to “Add more”.
• 4: When complete, click “Start working”.
• 5: In QuickBooks, Go to “Lists - Item List” to see the current result

The most tedious part of the process comes next - creating the planned hierarchy in QuickBooks. In QuickBooks, go to “Lists” - “Item Lists”. This will show all of the line items that were copied in from Excel. The next step is to make each of the detailed components (e .g., Tow or Service charge, mileage, labor) a sub-category under the appropriate major sales category (four in this case). An example:

• 1: Right click on an Item (e.g., On-scene LD Labor Charge).
• 2: Choose “Edit Item”. (Or click “Add/Edit Multiple Items”)

• 3: In the dialogue box, check “Subitem of” and choose the appropriate sales category (e.g., “On-Scene LD Total Revenue”) from the drop-down menu.
• 4: Click OK and the detailed component Item will now show as indented (a Sub-item) under the Sales Category. The screen shot below shows the result after creating the hierarchy for On-Scene LD and Towing LD

• 5: Note: If you use “Add/Edit Multiple Items”, there is a copy down option (right click than can potentially streamline this task)

Creating the connection between DispatchDirectTM and Quickbooks requires that two applications are in place.

• The QuickBooks Web Connector. This application will initiate communications with the Ranger servers and be called upon every time information is to be exchanged between DispatchDirectTM and Quickbooks
• The rangersst QuickBooks application. This component provides the QB Web Connector with the necessary configuration information to link to the information of a specific company on the Ranger servers. It is drawn upon only once

For more recent versions of QuickBooks, the Web Connector will be installed along with the accounting software. The Web Connector will be found in the QuickBooks program folder: Start - All Programs - QuickBooks folder - Web Connector. If this application is not installed, it can be downloaded for free from Intuit:

1. Go to http://marketplace.intuit.com/webconnector/
2. Click on “Download and install the QuickBooks Web Connector”. Note: this download will not affect any of the information stored in QuickBooks.
3. Click on “Save”
4. Be sure to remember where the file is downloaded (ideally in the QuickBooks folder) because it will be needed to initiate each and every connection to Ranger DispatchDirectTM.

The download of the rangersst QuickBooks configuration file is a one-time task:

• 1: In the main RangerSST menu, go to “Quickbooks setup” and click on “Download web connect file”.

• 2: In the dialogue box, choose “Save File”.
• 3: Click on “OK”. The file (“rangersst”) will be downloaded from the Ranger servers. The file will be shown in a Downloads window.
• 4: Right click on the file - Select “Open containing folder” and note the exact location of the file, for later use. (You can move the file to a more easily remembered location if desired.)

When these steps are complete, the pieces are in place for the first linkage between QuickBooks and DispatchDirectTM. The objective of the first connection is to transfer the Item detail from QuickBooks into DispatchDirectTM. This will enable mapping of Ranger data to QuickBooks Items. Proceed as follows:

• 1: Open up QuickBooks.
• 2: In DispatchDirectTM go to “Quickbooks setup - Account mapping”.
• 3: Verify that the box next to “Allow Ranger to send transactions to Quickbooks” has NOT been checked. (The purpose of the initial communication is to get Item detail from QB, not to send invoicing data.)

• 4: Go to the QuickBooks folder (Start - All Programs) and click on “Web Connector”, which will, open a dialogue box.

• 5: On the QuickBooks Web Connector dialogue box, click “Add an application”.
• 6: Go to where the “rangersst” file is stored, and double-click to select.
• 7: Another dialogue box - Authorize New Web Service - will be opened. The box will confirm the security of the Ranger SST servers (COMODO High-Assurance). Click on “OK”.

• 8: A new window will be opened - QuickBooks Web Connector. This process will configure the Web Connector using the rangersst file.

• 9: Click the box next to RangerSST QuickBooks interface, and enter the password you use to log into Ranger DispatchDirectTM in the Password field at the end of the row.
• 10:Click on “Update Selected” .
• 11: Grant permission for the Internet Connection in the Authorization dialogue window.

• 12: The progress bars on the bottom of the QuickBooks Web Connector dialogue box will both go to 100%. The title in the Application box will change to the company name.

• 13: Click on Exit.

The web connection is now configured. Once again, any further communications will be initiated though QuickBooks Web Connector from the QuickBooks folder.

The final steps in setup will structure the mapping of detailed information on the charges for a job as collected in Ranger, to the (usually more summarized) sales “Items” as defined previously in QuickBooks. The level of effort - in this step: repetitive activity - again depends on the design decision as to the granularity of information that will be transferred to QuickBooks. Before jumping into the details, it is useful to sort through the high-level roadmap for the mapping task. If a less complex design for QuickBooks was selected, there are a few relatively straightforward mapping options available in DispatchDirectTM.

• If the choice was to categorize information in QuickBooks by only Vehicle Class, then a mapping of accounts is only required for each of the vehicle primary classes and sub-classes
• If the choice was to categorize information in QuickBooks by only Service Offering, then a mapping of accounts is only required for each of the service primary classes and sub-offerings
• If the choice was to summarize information in QuickBooks in a single “sales” category, all that is needed is a “default” template that maps each of the detailed components that generate the total charge (e.g., Tow or Service charge, mileage, labor) to the corresponding Items in QuickBooks. The default (created by choosing “none selected” for both Vehicle Class and Service Offering) will map the component charges into the “Items” as created in QuickBooks. In the simplest case, there could be only one “Item” in QuickBooks to which the total charges for a job from DispatchDirectTM are mapped

The case example is more complex, again with the intent of providing added value. In the case example, the decision was made to summarize sales in QuickBooks by the primary Vehicle Classes and Service offerings. To roll-up by the primary Vehicle Class and Service Offering in QuickBooks, the roadmap for the mapping in DispatchDirectTM would be as follows:

• Light - Towing: each of the following must be mapped to the same sales accounting Items in QuickBooks
  • Light - Standard; Standard Towing
  • Light - Standard; Emergency Towing
  • Light - Standard; Comeback
  • Light - Standard; Hat Move On-Site
  • Light - Luxury; Standard Towing
  • Light - Luxury; Emergency Towing
  • Light - Luxury; Comeback
  • Light - Luxury; Hat Move On-Site
  • Light - Super Lux; Standard Towing
  • Light - Super Lux; Emergency Towing
  • Light - Super Lux; Comeback
  • Light - Super Lux; Hat Move On-Site
• Light - On-Scene: each of the following must be mapped to the same sales accounting Items in QuickBooks
  • Light - Standard; On-Scene Standard
  • Light - Standard; On-Scene Battery replacement
  • Light - Standard; On-Scene Lock Out
  • Light - Luxury; On-Scene Standard
  • Light - Luxury; On-Scene Battery replacement
  • Light - Luxury; On-Scene Lock Out
  • Light - Super Lux; On-Scene Standard
  • Light - Super Lux; On-Scene Battery replacement
  • Light - Super Lux; On-Scene Lock Ou
• Medium -Towing: each of the following must be mapped to the same sales accounting Items in QuickBooks
  • Medium - Standard; Standard Towing
  • Medium - Standard; Emergency Towing
  • Medium - Standard; Comeback
  • Medium - Standard; Hat Move On-Site
  • Medium - Class 4,5; Standard Towing
  • Medium - Class 4,5; Emergency Towing
  • Medium - Class 4,5; Comeback
  • Medium - Class 4,5; Hat Move On-Site
• Medium - On-scene: each of the following must be mapped to the same sales accounting Items in QuickBooks
  • Medium - Standard; On-Scene Standard
  • Medium - Standard; On-Scene Battery replacement
  • Medium - Standard; On-Scene Lockout
  • Medium - Class 4,5; On-Scene Standard
  • Medium - Class 4,5; On-Scene Battery replacement
  • Medium - Class 4,5; On-Scene Lockout

On the surface this appears complex. In practice, four “base” mappings will need to be created. These “base” mappings will then be saved under each of the Vehicle Class/ Service Offering combinations that roll-up to the appropriate “base” offering. This latter task is repetitive, but easy and fast. Note: any changes to the definition of services - Vehicle Class/Service Offering combinations - must be reflected in corresponding changes in the setup for QuickBooks.

The next task is to “map” each of the individual data fields in Ranger to the sales accounting Items in QuickBooks. From the initial linkage with QuickBooks, DispatchDirectTM collected the Items for sales accounting as entered previously (see: Setup - “Add the products and services you sell”). These “Items” from QuickBooks will now be available in the drop-down menus for each of the component charges to create the linkage.

The process for creating one of the “base” mappings in the case example, - i.e., for Light - Towing - would proceed as follows:

• 1: In DispatchDirectTM, go to “QuickBooks setup - Account mapping” from the main menu.
• 2: In “Company-wide configuration - type of txn” (transaction), choose “itemized invoice” in the drop-down menu. If you are taking a highly summarized approach and only sending job totals by Customer/Account to QuickBooks, choosing “Statement charge” would be appropriate, and the Invoice line item configuration will not be needed (nor available).

• 3: Select “Use customer short code” - this will simplify the linkage to QuickBooks. The Ranger short code (Account - Code) will map to “Customer Name” in QuickBooks. The “Company Name” in QuickBooks will be the customer full name (Account - name) in Ranger. For established QB users, it may be preferable to select “customer full name”. However, for the input from Ranger to be linked to an existing customer in QuickBooks, the “Company Name” in QuickBooks must match the “Account - Name” in Ranger. If there is not a match, a new account will be created in QuickBooks. Inserting the short codes from Ranger as “Company Name” in QuickBooks is generally easier and less prone to duplicate entries.
• 4: The “Txn (transaction) Description template” provides an opportunity to add more information to an invoice generated in QuickBooks. The fields in {brackets} will draw on the job-specific data in DispatchDirectTM. For example, the structure of: PO#{po} / Ticket#{ticketno} / RangerID:{rangerid} will show in the description field on the QuickBooks invoices as:
  • PO# 345 / Ticket# 123 / RangerID:234256
  • PO# 5645 / Ticket# 245 / RangerID:234265
• 5: In “Mapping identifiers” select the appropriate Vehicle Class and Service Offering from the drop-down menu. These selections define the Mapping name. For the “base” mapping in this case example, the choices would be:
  • Vehicle class: Light-Standard
  • Service Offering: Towing-Standard
• 6: The drop-down menus in “Invoice line item configuration” will now have QB “Item” choices that were collected during the initial connection between QuickBooks and DispatchDirectTM. For each line item, e.g., Labor, pick the corresponding QB Item: Service - Towing LD Total Revenue: Towing LD Labor.
  • “Service” is a QB created term for the sales category (as distinct from “Product”)
  • “Towing LD Total Revenue” is the roll-up Item for all of the Light Duty Towing revenues. This was created in the Excel spreadsheet (see: Setting Up QuickBooks – Setup - “Add the people you do business with”)
  • “Towing LD Labor” is the “Subitem of” “Towing LD Total Revenue” as defined in the QuickBooks hierarchy

• 7: When the mapping is complete for each component charge is complete, click on “Save” and this mapping will show in the window that unfolds from the right side.
• 8: As noted earlier, in this case example, there are 11 other Vehicle Class/Service Offering combinations that roll-up to Light - Towing (see Mapping Data From DispatchDirectTM To QuickBooks — Establishing The Hierarchy Designed For QuickBooks). Creating the other 11 while repetitive, is easy:
  • Select the [Light-Standard][Towing-Standard] from the right “Mappings” window.
  • In “Mapping identifiers”, Change Vehicle class and Service offering to the next combination in the list that rolls up to Light - Towing.
  • Click on “Save” and this mapping will show in the window that unfolds from the right side.
  • Repeat until all combinations have been entered.
• 9: Repeat for the other major sales categories, e.g.,
  • Vehicle class: Light-Standard
  • Service Offering: OnScene-Standard

• 10: When complete, exit Ranger and log back in. This step is “insurance” that the system reloads all information (vs. data that might be in the browser cache) and that all inputs and changes will be implemented.
• 11: After logging back in, double check that all entries in “Account mapping” are correct - this concludes the setup process.

After configuration and setup have been completed, DispatchDirectTM is ready to send and QuickBooks is ready to receive invoice information. Most companies choose to do this at least on a weekly basis - to avoid a backlog in the process, and more importantly, to expedite the sending of invoices and the receipt of payments.

Information is generally flowing from DispatchDirectTM to QuickBooks. However, any changes to Item definitions in QuickBooks will be collected by DispatchDirectTM and be available to refine the mappings in “Invoice line item configuration”.

Once a Job has been transferred to QuickBooks, the records are “locked” in DispatchDirectTM and can no longer be corrected. Before transferring jobs to QuickBooks, it is recommended that the Job charges are reviewed in DispatchDirectTM. This review is facilitated by a summary in “Reports - Quickbooks pending invoices”.

Jobs (pending invoices) can be organized by Account (Requested By), and show the detailed build-up to the total amount. Corrections to a Pending Invoice can be made by:

• 1: Go to Dispatch on the main menu.
• 2: In the Dispatch drop-down menu select “Month-to-date plus open”. Jobs that have been cleared will show in gray.

• 3: Click on the Job in question - which will open the Job Status screen for the Job.
• 4: Review information on the call and current invoice pricing. Required corrections can be made in the “Modified pricing” fields.

• 5: When corrections are complete, click on “Save/Send Pricing”.
• 6: Return to “Reports - Quickbooks pending invoices” and confirm changes have been recorded in the job.
• 7: Note: Jobs can be withheld from QuickBooks by right-clicking on the job and selecting “Do not send to Quickbooks”.