To any PA/ Secretary starting work at a practice where Made to Measure accounting software is already used:
We hope you will enjoy the software and find it easy and efficient. We also hope you will find our support-service friendly and helpful. To avoid misunderstandings please read the list of issues below:
1. When the MTM software was purchased we offered free support for the first couple of months until it was up and running smoothly. Obviously we cannot offer this indefinitely so that support calls made to us will be charged at R60 per 15minute telephone call. This should not be seen as any type of penalty, but rather as a necessary practice expense so that the new staff may have all the same advantages learning the software as the earlier staff did.
2. Take daily backups! Please!
3. Read and use the online help (i.e. Click on the help menu item or the help button on the window). If you are on the professional version then the help files have a print option.
4. If you are on the professional version then there will be a setup guide in the DVD box the software was sent in, which should also be read. If you are still on the millennium version then now is probably a good time to upgrade – you have to learn it so you may as well be learning the latest version, which has many advantages over and is easier to use than the millennium. (see website i.e. Professional version)
5. Use the website www.madetomeasure.co.za, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), Support Pages and User Forum where many common questions are answered.
6. If you inherited a little black book of instructions for using the program that have been followed blindly and unthinkingly in the past, treat it with suspicion. (see 7 below)
7. You may well be in this new job because the previous person was incompetent and has left you a set of accounts that are in a mess. This will mean that instead of just learning how to work the software correctly, which with the aid of help files etc. is really easy compared to most other accounting software, you now have to learn how to fix all the badly captured data. Here there are two things to focus on:
1. Are the accounts correct – i.e. in balance? Run a reindex and then a data integrity test from the tools menu. Any damaged accounts listed can be fixed using the ‘edit balances' function (see help files)
2. Have payments been correctly matched and archived? There should NOT generally be pink boxes on the account highlighting amounts-to-match and accounts-brought-forward values. (See help files i.e. Matching and archiving to eliminate these values.) If the data is very bad you will probably need to call us for help getting it in order.
8. Ensure you close your months correctly with a month-end update so that accounts are aged (see help files)
9. Good luck! Enjoy!
