Printing Receipts

Note:  Many common questions related to printing receipts have been answered in our newsletters -- be sure to check the Newsletter Category Index (click this link) to see if your question is answered there.

You can print receipts from the transaction dialog at any time, whether you have entered new transactions or not.  This can be used to print additional receipts or summary statements for the customer.  

You should first select the Receipt Type, if the default is not appropriate.  The default will be the type selected in File / Printing Options, and the Ticket form is the initial default.  Just select the desired type in the drop-down box before clicking one of the Print buttons to change the style that prints (this will not change the default for next time).  For details on the different formats, see the Receipt Types section.

One the receipt type is selected, you can print the receipt.  There are two choices for printing:

Print Reservation Receipt (All) will print a receipt with all of the transactions shown, old and new.  

Print Only Some Transactions will print the same kind of receipt but with only certain transactions.  There are 5 different choices for this.

"New" transactions (last batch) --  If you have added new transactions in this dialog session (they will be in yellow), then only those will be printed.  If you have not entered any transactions since opening the Transactions dialog, then this function will print all transactions added in the previous session.  Thus you can use this to re-print the last "new" receipt.

Unbalanced (since 0 balance) -- This will generally print any transactions since the last full payment was made.  Technically it will find the last "zero-balance" point in the transactions and print any after that point.  Since the order of the transactions affects this, there may be cases where it doesn't correctly find what you would consider the last paid-in-full point (for instance if a new charge is added before they make a payment for previous charges, without paying for the new charge to zero the balance).  Also note that if there is currently a zero balance (it's already paid in full), then rather than printing no transactions at all, it will print all transactions since the zero-balance point prior to the last transaction (everything since "last" paid in full).

Unpaid (since 0/credit balance) -- This is similar to the zero-balance option, except that it will also consider a credit balance to be "paid", not just zero-balances.  For instance if they paid an extra $20 on their last bill, it won't print the last bill or the payment, only transactions since that time.

Transactions since date -- This allows you to print transactions added since a given date (including those added on the given date).  This is most useful to work around problems of payment order mentioned above, or if you need to print an invoice for multiple meter readings or other charges added in different sessions.

Transactions between dates -- This allows you to print transactions in a given date range (including those added on the since & thru dates).  This is particularly useful if you're using the post-dating option for future reservations and want to print a receipt that doesn't include those future transactions.

Show "Previous Balance" -- Check this box when printing only some transactions if you want to include a line showing any previous balance (prior to those transactions being printed) and a total "Balance Due" for the reservation.  Uncheck this box if you only want a "Statement Total" for the transactions being printed, without showing the total balance due for the reservation or customer.

Post-dated Transactions

If you are using post-dated Charge transactions (as enabled through Program Options / Transactions), those will be included on most receipts even through they have a future date.  So for instance it will be showing the future balance as of when they check in.  The only way to print a receipt excluding post-dated transactions is to use Print Only Some Transactions with the "Transactions between dates" option mentioned above.

Information on Receipts and Invoices

Receipts are much different than other reports printed in Campground Master.  They are "forms" rather than a grid, so they don't use most of the Print options (Black & White, Fit to Page, etc.).  The receipt contains much of the reservation information (confirmation number, number of nights, customer info, vehicle information, site info, etc.), plus a standard disclaimer text, park information (from the Park record), and in some cases an "Additional Notes" section.  (If the reservation is not yet assigned to a site, then the first Park record information will be used by default.)  If the Check-in and/or Check-out time fields are enabled for Park records, then the receipts will also show these for the customers information.  It will also show the check-out date, so they are clear about what date they actually need to leave.  If you don't want to show these on the receipt, then you need to disable these fields under Maintenance / Data Field Definitions / Park Fields.

Most of the receipt formats will first list all Charge and Discount transactions, and a sub-total for them.  Next it will list taxes if there are any, and Total Charges.  Then it will list any payments, deposits, discounts and refunds, and a balance due, credit balance or statement total.  It will also show the Paid Through date for the reservation if there is one, as a reminder to the customer when the next payment might be due.  If you're printing only New transactions rather than all of them, then the receipt will also show any previous balance (from prior transactions) and the total balance due or credit balance.

There should be plenty of room for all transactions in most situations.  Because these receipts are often folded in half and put up in slots for each site in the campground office, the software will attempt to fit the transactions in the top half of the page, shrinking the text if needed.  However it can only shrink it to a certain extent (to remain readable), so at some point it will continue down the page if a lot transactions are present.  

If there are so many transactions that it won't fit on the page, then it will continue on another page.  All of the reference information will be repeated on each page, with only the list of transactions being a continuation.  Note that the number of transactions printed on each page is manually specified for each format, rather than actual calculation of space available.  If it cuts off transactions too soon instead of continuing, you can adjust the number of transactions per page in Forms Setup.

If you don't want a multiple-page receipt, you could split the reservation at some point and thus start a new set of transactions.

If the receipt is for multiple reservations linked together, the receipt can also show a list of other sites (reservations) that are combined with this receipt.  (See Maintenance / Printing Options / Receipts to enable this feature.)  The list will include all synchronized and sub-member reservations under the "master" reservation.  If the date(s) or check in/out times for any of the linked reservations are different than the master reservation (i.e. different than the information at the top), then those differences will also be shown.