Boulevard records transactions on a cash basis. When an invoice is saved without a payment, it then becomes a bill and that original invoice should not be altered. Entering payments into Account Balance will update the customer’s account correctly with their payment. In addition, the Account Balance dialog will show invoice dates side by side with payments applied, thus allowing the next invoice you create to show the updated account balance for your customer.
Boulevard is designed so that when you create an invoice and click OK, what has occurred at the time should be reflected in that invoice. If you have not received payment at the time the invoice is created, the balance due will carry forward for that customer until payment is received and entered. When you receive payment, you can access the account balance by right clicking on the customer then selecting Account Balance. By clicking Payment, you’ll be able to enter all of the details of the payment including applying that payment to a specific invoice number.
There are many reasons why an invoice shouldn’t be edited. For the purpose of this topic, one of the most important reasons has to do with causing inaccuracies in the customer’s account balance. When a payment needs to be entered, it should be entered to the account balance for the customer rather then editing the invoice and entering payment. For instance, if your customer made a purchase of $200 worth of product and you allowed her to make four payments of $50? Editing the invoice to apply a payment of $50 each time will not change the original invoice balance as each payment is for the same amount. If you were to go in and change the payments on invoice each time from $50 to $100 to $150 and so on, in the end your record will show a $200 payment received, not the actual four $50 payments. Using account balance to enter each payment and apply it toward that invoice is more accurate and effective.
Using the account balance for posting payments will also ensure accuracy with the Deposit Log and the Business Tracking Register, especially if you use the payments entered into Boulevard to help balance your Mary Kay® checkbook each month.
It isn’t unheard of in our current technology driven age to receive an order from a customer either by voice mail, email, website or even text! Perhaps you receive the order but are unable to make contact back with the customer unless it’s to leave a voice mail in return. As busy as we are today, it’s easy to miss each other. Sometimes just a voice mail or email confirming the order and providing a total due is all you can do before popping the product in the mail. You can include a copy of her unpaid invoice or even email her a copy while letting her know the products are in the mail.
At this point you now have an outstanding transaction as you wait for the customer to receive the product and for the check to arrive to you. As we discussed earlier, payment not made at the time of the sale should not be entered on the invoice. If the balance for your customer carries over to the start of a new month, you can send her a Statement of Account to show her an accurate accounting of the product she received and the amount she owes. This is especially effective for customers on a payment plan. Their Statement of Account will show their running total of purchases and payments made for the specified period.
The Account Balance feature is available for anyone in any list and can be accessed in multiple ways. For your customers and address list contacts, you can right-click their name and left-click Account Balance from the menu. Double-click their name to bring up their profile and then access Account Balance under the main Customer menu. Open her history, click the Payments tab and click the Account Balance button.
For contacts within the Recruit List, double-click their name to bring up the profile, click Customer from the menu bar and click Account Balance, or click the History button (Folder icon in tool bar), click the Payments tab and click the Account Balance button. This is very helpful when you have team/unit members purchasing CDs or DVDs from you.
Payments can be entered as cash/check with a field for entering the check number. You can also enter an approved credit card which can be used when the payment has been submitted to ProPay® (US & Canada only) already and will give you an option to create an automatic expense entry for the ProPay fees charged when entered through Account Balance. For additional information on using the Account Balance, there are many helpful topics in your Boulevard software Help menu. To access these topics, open the Account Balance then press the F1 key on your keyboard. The Help topic, Account Balance dialog box, will appear. This information will be helpful and, in addition, you can click See Also for more related topics.
As always, our Customer Service Representatives are here to assist if you have further questions. We look forward to working with you.
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One of the new features of 2012 is the ability to customize the screen sized of each form when it opens. This is great since we all have different monitors, fonts, and vision. The easiest way is to go to the Window menu and select Cascade. This will allow you to adjust each form a little easier. 
(If you’re uncertain if your Boulevard software is set up to tax before or after discounts, go to Preferences under the File menu. Select the Sales tab. The second checkbox is ‘Compute sales tax before discounts’ on invoice. If this is checked your Boulevard will calculate tax on the retail value at all times. If the box is unchecked, your Boulevard software will calculate tax on the invoice after any discounts given.)
