How to configure a TABs TBDevice export for a firm with Task Based Billing Clients
Question:
How do you configure a TABs TBDevice (ASCII Variable format) export for a firm with some Task Based Billing Clients?
Answer:
In the TABs TBDevice ASCII Variable format layout, there are the following fields:
|
File Layout |
||
|
Field |
Field # |
Format |
|
Client ID |
1 |
Up to 12 characters |
|
Timekeeper |
2 |
Up to 3 characters (can be either timekeeper number or timekeeper initials) |
|
Tcode |
3 |
Up to 3 digits preceded by a "$" for costs (trans code cannot be greater than 999 in value) |
|
Phase/Task Code |
4 |
Must be in the format XNNN, where X is any upper case letter (excluding A and E) and NNN is 3 digits |
|
Activity Code |
5 |
Must be in the format XNNN, where X is either the letter A (for fees) or E (for costs), and NNN is 3 digits |
|
Date |
6 |
Must be in the mm/dd/yy or the mm/dd/yyyy format. |
|
Hours (for fees) Units (for costs) | ||
7
Decimal format up to 9999.99 maximum (i.e. 1.25 is 1 hr. 15 min.)
Rate
8
Dollar format up to 9999.99
Amount
9
Billable dollar amount up to 9999999.99
Description
10
Up to a maximum of 5000 characters
CrLf
carriage return/line feed
Standard clients use the Tcode (field 3) to determine the transaction cost. When you generate validation from TBDevice, it includes a list of defined Tcodes in a file named TCODE.TXT. Select the code for the appropriate transaction and precede it with a $ to indicate this is a cost.
Task Based Billing Clients use the Phase/Task Code (field 4) and the Activity Code (field 5). These are industry standard Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTBMS) codes. You can find a complete list of the codes here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform...agement_System
When you create the export for TABs, you should ALWAYS populate all three of these fields regardless of the type of client. When TABs imports the data it reads the ClientID field and based upon the clients configuration, it uses the appropriate fields. So, if a client is a task based billing client, it ignores field 3 and uses fields 4 & 5. If the client is not a task based billing client, it uses field 3 and ignores fields 4 & 5.