Bill Power - frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- Outlook
- Does Bill Power work with Office and Outlook 97, 98, and 2000?
- How can Outlook Entries be grouped into projects, or cases?
- Where are Contact Billing Information and Account fields located?
- How can you restrict the Outlook Folders loaded by Bill Power?
- Why does Bill Power not load Outlook entries dated in Jan and Feb 1999?
- Networks, Workgroups, Handheld PCs, and Exchange
- How can Public Folders be used for workgroup billing?
- Can Bill Power load Outlook data over a peer to peer network without using Windows NT server and Exchange?
- In Outlook, how can a Folder be connected to a networked User's Personal Mailbox Folder?
- What are Windows User Profiles used for?
- How does Bill Power work with Handheld PCs?
Setup - Bill Power FAQs
- Why are new Windows system files sometimes installed? Bill Power uses components (files) from Microsoft that are shared by the Windows operating system. As Bill Power is updated, new versions of these files are installed by Setup. These files are also included with Service Packs for Windows, available for free download from Microsoft. Click here to go to the Microsoft web site.
- Why do I get "Access Violation" warnings? This can occur when a file being installed by Setup is 1) write protected, or 2) being used by another program. Make sure all other applications are closed when running Setup.
- Why does the initial setup window linger after setup is complete? The initial setup window continues to be displayed after setup, while the temporary files that are used by setup are being deleted.
- How are grid and printout columns formatted (hidden, shown, title, width)? Column attributes are set by clicking on the column header in the Bill Power Main View, and selecting items from the pop-up menu. Column widths are also set in the Main View by resizing the column header with your mouse.
- Can printout be saved as files? Printouts can be saved and opened as files from the Bill Power Preview window.
- How are currency, date, and time display formats changed? Change the display formats of currency, date and time using Windows Regional Settings - Start - Settings - Control Panel - Regional Settings - Currency, Time and Date tabs.
- How are Hourly Rates entered in Outlook for use in Bill Power? Outlook Calendar, Task, Journal, and Contact Entries all have a Billing Information data field. Bill Power uses the data in this field to calculate Fixed Fee, Hourly Rate, Cost, and/or Payment for the Entry. Hourly Rates should be entered as a number followed by 'H', 'h', or 'hour' (for example: 50 / hour). For more information, see 'Entering Billing, Payment, and Account Data in Outlook' in Bill PowerHelp.
- How can the same Hourly Rate be used for many Outlook entries? Using Contacts to store Hourly Rates and relating them to Entries via Categories allows billing many different Entries at the same Hourly Rate, without having to enter the Hourly Rate for each and every Entry. For more information, see 'By the Hour: One or More Hourly Rates' in Bill Power Help.
- Can invoices (billing reports) be emailed to clients or workgroup members? Invoices or reports created with Bill Power can be saved as files from the Preview window, and attached to email messages. Clients or workgroup members simply download the Bill Power Viewer from the Studio 848 web site, and can then open the file attachments, view, and print the data.
- Does Bill Power work with Outlook 97, 98, 2000? Bill Power works with Outlook 97, 98, or 2000.
- How can Outlook entries be grouped into projects, or cases? Use Categories to relate Outlook Entries to each other, and group Entries together. For more information, see 'Categories: Organizing Data in Outlook' in Bill Power Help.
- Where are Contact Billing Information and Account fields located? The Contact Billing Information and Account fields are located on the edit Contact window - All Fields Tab - Select From: All Contact Fields - in the grid.
- How can you restrict the Outlook Folders loaded by Bill Power? Configure folders in Outlook by connecting and disconnecting Public folders, and adding or removing Personal Folders. Create Windows User Profiles for viewing various Outlook folder configurations. Set Outlook Options (Startup Settings) to prompt for a Profile at startup.
- Why does Bill Power not load Outlook entries dated in Jan and Feb 1999? Problems sometimes occurred when loading Outlook 97 entries dated Jan-99 - Feb-99. This is caused by an Outlook 97 bug (fixed in the Outlook SR2 update). The problems do not occur in Outlook 98 or 2000. These problems can be fixed by either: 1) upgrading to the latest version of Bill Power (6.1 or later), 2) installing the Outlook SR2 update (available from Microsoft), or 3) setting the Windows Short Date format to use 4 digits for the year (Windows - My Computer - Control Panel - Regional Settings - Date - Short Date Style - Set to M/d/yyyy).
- How can Public Folders be used for workgroup billing? Public folders can be created and configured for workgroup billing. These folders can be centrally administered (including security) and stored on network servers. Bill Power calculates cumulative summaries and displays the data in Subfolder Summary Folders. A typical Outlook Public Folder hierarchy can be configured as follows:
- Public Folders
- Billable Entries Folder
- Contacts Folder (shared client data, including Hourly Rates)
- Workgroup1 Folder
- Employee1 Folder
- Tasks Folder
- etc.
- Employee2 Folder
- etc.
- Workgroup2 Folder
- etc.
- Can Bill Power load Outlook data over a peer to peer network without using Windows NT server and Exchange? Bill Power and Outlook can be used for work group Time & Billing over peer to peer networks by adding a Windows User Profile for each networked user. Set Outlook Options (Startup Settings) to prompt for a Profile at startup.
- In Outlook, how can a Folder be connected to a networked User's Personal Mailbox Folder? Add a connection to a Users Personal Mailbox Folder by setting Exchange properties:
- Open the Windows Control Panel.
- Select Mail.
- Select Exchange properties.
- Select Advanced properties.
- Connect to the User's Mailbox by entering the appropriate email address.
- At the User's PC, set the Properties of the User's mailbox folder so that it's Permissions settings allow public read-only access (Reviewer permission).
- What are Windows User Profiles used for? Profiles contain settings such as the information service provider, access to your Inbox, address books, sets of folders, and other features. They are very useful for viewing different folder configurations in Outlook. To add User Profiles in Windows:
- Outlook Setup Options
- Microsoft Exchange support is required.
- Open the Windows Control Panel.
- Select Mail.
- Select Show Profiles.
- Add User Profiles as necessary.
- Setup the Profile’s Personal Folders file (*.pst) accordingly.
- How does Bill Power work with Handheld PCs?
Bill Power supports Handhelds through its integration with popular desktop PC Calendars. You can synchronize (upload and download) data between your desktop PC Calendar your Handheld PC Calendar. Our customers using Bill Power with Handheld PCs 1) install Bill Power on their desktop PC, 2) synchronize data between their handheld and their PC,3) use Bill Power for time and billing reporting. For more information on Handhelds, check out the Microsoft Outlook Handheld PC web site, and the Lotus Organizer Handheld device support web site.
- Why do errors occur when Bill Power is initializing Outlook? Outlook initialization errors can occur because Outlook is not installed on the PC, or because Bill Power cannot establish communication with Outlook. The latter is a fundamental problem, and is usually caused by shared Windows files being clobbered by various application setup programs. The problem can usually be fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook.
- Why do errors occur when Bill Power is loading data from Outlook folders? There are several reasons errors can occur when loading data from Outlook folders:
- Bad Outlook installation and setup.
- Security problems (no read permission for the folder).
- Network problems that occur during loading.
- Forms that are related to the folder that are incorrectly designed, and/or contain bad VBA code.
- The file associated with the folder (*.pst) cannot be found.
- Why does a Printer Error #482 occur in Bill Power? This error can occur because no Windows printers are installed, or due to a bad printer driver installation. The solution is typically to uninstall and reinstall the appropriate Printer driver (Windows Control Panel - Printers ...).
- Why does the Bill Power Print Preview eventually display no data and crash? This error seems to only occur on some Windows 98 systems, after repeated print previewing of data. An exception in gdi.exe (Windows Graphical Device Interface shared library) can eventually occur, and Bill Power will crash.
- This problem is due to previewing and printing Rich Text Format (RTF) text.
- Note that the Bill Power print Cover Page Text uses RTF.
- Possible Causes:
- Incomplete Bill Power installation.
- Can occur when shared files in the Windows/system directory are write-protected.
- The shared files are riched32.dll, richtx32.ocx, and vsview6.ocx.
- Disable write protection on the files, and re-install Bill Power.
- This error is still under investigation.
- Work-arounds:
- Stop and restart Bill Power
- Or, disable printing the Cover Page Text.
- Run Bill Power
- Click on the Options toolbar button.
- Click on Print Options - Layout Tab.
- Cover page section - disable Print Cover Page Text (un-check the option).
Web site design by Studio 848 Inc This page last modified: May 25, 2003 - Bill Power is a Registered Trademark of Studio 848 Inc. Act!, Domino, Exchange, Notes, Office, Organizer, Outlook, QuickBooks, SmartSuite, and Windows are Trademarks of their respective manufacturers. All rights reserved.
