Handling different numbers of digits on meters

UPDATE: Version 10.0 added a new feature to make this easier, so you can use that instead of the old method explained below.  See the new article:

https://campgroundmaster.com/news/meters---handling-different-nu.html

However the original method below will still work if you have more specific needs or don't have version 10.0 yet:

If your park has a variety of electric meters, some older than others, then some meters may have a different number of digits than others.  Eventually you'll run into a problem of the numbers wrapping around to 0, which is handled by Campground Master through the wrap-around numbers in the Park record.  When a meter reading is entered and charges calculated, it will know that it wrapped around (since the previous reading was much higher than the current reading), and will calculate based on the wrapped-around number.  For instance, a reading of 150 when the previous reading was 9800, assuming a 4-digit meter, will be treated as 10150 instead.

However, the Park record only handles one wrap-around number for each meter type.  To handle meters with different numbers of digits, you actually have use separate parks.  Here's how to do this:

1. Go to Maintenance / Park Setup / Parks.

2. You'll need to copy everything here to another Park record, so Print this one so you have a handy reference.  Also write down the Key Code, since that's not part of the printout.

3. Make sure the "Short Name" field is something logical -- usually it's something simple like "Campground" or a short version of your parks' name.  The customer never sees this, so the main purpose is so that you can distinguish between different Park records -- so in this case it might be better to have it be something like "Old meters".

3. Click Add New to add another Park record.  All fields will be cleared, you're now editing the new record.

4. Enter everything exactly the same as the previous record (from the printout), particularly making sure that the Authorization Code is the same.  The only differences should be the Short Name, which must be different for this record (e.g. "New meters"), and of course the meter wrap-around number will be different since that's why you're doing this.

5. Click Save to save the new record.  You might get a Warning message about the Auth code -- that's OK.  However if you get an Error message about the Auth code, then double-check the park name and address to make sure it's identical.  The Key Code should match the other record -- if not, then something is different in the name or address.

6. Now you need to go into the sites and select the appropriate Park for each site.  Go to Maintenance / Park Setup / Sites, and change the Park selection as needed for any with the new meters.  (The sites should already have the first Park selected, so no change is needed if they will stay with that one.)

Once the sites are all assigned to the correct Park, their meter readings will wrap around properly.