This material provides guidance in setting up the most straightforward linkage from Ranger DispatchDirect to QuickBooks. In material that follows in this section, all revenue from Ranger is forwarded to a single sales line “Item” in QuickBooks. However, there is capability within DispatchDirect to forward revenue information to QuickBooks by product/service offering (Vehicle Class/Service Offering) including, for each product/service offering, the specific components that contribute to the total charges for a tow, such as mileage, Extras, and Labor. If you would prefer to collect more detailed revenue information in QuickBooks, go to

http://www1.rangersst.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=support:quickbooks_setup_advanced

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.qwc) 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.

The material that follows assumes that the “Low” complexity option is suitable for the business. If a higher level complexity option is preferred, go to

http://www1.rangersst.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=support:quickbooks_setup_advanced

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 will probably want 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).

The example below, is a Low Complexity case.

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

Business requirements for the case example: Transfer summary tow charges by customer to QuickBooks for invoicing and accounting

All charges to customers - both for Towing and On-Scene services - will be summarized into a single amount - Towing/Service Charges

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: Enter the product/service name and description into the QB table. For example: Name: Towing/Service Charges; Description: Vehicle towing & on-scene roadside assistance.

• 3: When complete, click “Start working”.
• 4: In QuickBooks, Go to “Lists - Item List” to see the current result

Check to confirm that payments will go to Undeposited Funds

Go to Edit » Preferences » Payments » Company Preferences

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 depends on the design decision as to the granularity of information that will be transferred to QuickBooks. For less complex designs, 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

For this Low Complexity case example, the decision was to map all charges into a single revenue/sales line Item in QuickBooks.

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.

This case example, is taking a highly summarized approach and only sending job totals by Customer/Account to QuickBooks. For this case example:

• 1 Choose “Statement charge”, and the Invoice line item configuration will not be needed (nor available).

• 2: 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.
• 3: 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
• 4: In “Mapping identifiers” select the appropriate Vehicle Class and Service Offering from the drop-down menu. In this case example, the choices would be:
  • Vehicle class: none
  • Service Offering: none
• 5: In “Statement charge Configuration” choose the Item from QuickBooks: “Towing/Service Charges”
• 6: Click on “Save”

• 6: 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.
• 7: 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”.

Once validated, job invoice information is ready to be forwarded into QuickBooks. When a Job is forwarded to QuickBooks, the record in DispatchDirectTM is “flagged” so that it will not be sent again. The Job record is also “locked” since any attempts at correcting entries in DispatchDirectTM cannot be forwarded to QuickBooks.

To accomplish the transfer, complete the following steps

• 1: In DispatchDirectTM, go to “Quickbooks setup - Account mapping”, and in “Company-wide configuration”
• 2: Check the box “Allow Ranger to send transactions to Quickbooks?”, and “Save”

• 3: Go to the QuickBooks folder and click on “Web Connector”; the QuickBooks Web Connector dialogue box will open.
• 4: Check the box next to the Application: ranger SST QuickBooks Provider. Be sure the password has been entered.

• 4: Click on the “Update Selected” button.
• 5: Grant permission for the Internet Connection in the Authorization dialogue window.

• 6: The progress bars at the bottom of the QuickBooks Web Connector dialogue box will show 100% when the transfer is complete.
• 7: Exit QuickBooks Web Connector.
• 8: In DispatchDirectTM, the Quickbooks pending invoices will be removed (may require a screen refresh).
• 9: In QuickBooks, Open the “Customer Center” to find the invoice information that has been transferred, and that is now ready for processing (for more information, see instructions provided by QuickBooks).