Some schools charge a fee (per term, semester, or year) for ensemble participation. In this case, students will need to be charged by having the 'Ensemble fee' sent from this file over to the Student Accounts file.
Clicking this button will collect all the records of students that are still enrolled in an ensemble (i.e. no 'Finish Date') and send the fees to the 'Student Accounts' file. In that file, you are able to print invoices for all amounts owing, including instrument hire, exam fees, camp fees, etc. (Or if your school Accounts Department is responsible for the billing, you can print lists for them or email the data in the form of an excel spreadsheet.)
The computer will automatically work through a number of steps:
1. First, it will enter FIND mode where you can specify your search criteria. If you simply want to find all the students that are currently in an ensemble, you will notice that the criteria has already been entered for you. i.e. 'Status' = Current. However, if you want to modify your search criteria, you can do so at this point.
2. Click 'Continue' (in the status bar at the top right of the screen). It will FIND all the records defined by your criteria and take you to a screen where you can preview the records as a table. On this screen you can check the records (before sending them) and make any corrections, if necessary.
NOTE: The records will be automatically sorted by Ensemble Name and then Student Last Name - however, you can re-sort by simply clicking the column headings.
3. Click 'Continue' at the left or top of your screen and you will be taken to another screen where you can enter the current billing period. For example, if you are sending records across to the Accounts file to be billed for Terms 1 & 2, //, type this in the box. This will appear on the invoice or printout.
4. Click 'Continue'. The 'Student Accounts' file will then import the data from this file (the found set) and create new billing records (these new records are no longer attached to this file.)
NOTE: At this point, today's date will be entered in the 'Last Sent To Accounts' field for all these records in the Ensembles file.
5. You will then be taken to the 'Student Accounts' file and asked to select an Account/Billing Category. (You are unable to edit these categories at this point. If you wish to enter another category, leave it blank and manually enter it on the next screen.)
6. Finally, you will be taken to the Student Accounts screen where you can check the records just imported.
Note: You can alter billing details in this file (for example, if a student starts halfway through a semester and you only want to charge half the fees, you can enter that amount in the first instance and then change it to full fees after you have 'sent it to accounts'.) However, the amount you have 'sent across' is the amount that will be charged on the next invoice/list printout. Changes made in the 'Ensembles' file do not automatically flow through to any amounts in the 'Student Accounts' file waiting to be billed.