One detail to watch is, when you bring up the print window, where you tell it how many pages you want to print, to look for the option to print either "Current Record" or "Records being Browsed". You choose "Current Record" if you want to print only one record, and the other if you want a list of records to print.
Most pages will print cleanly by clicking on the "Print" button. If the page you want to print does not print without including all the buttons, check out the list of printable reports that appears when you click the button labeled "Reports" (Detail View). There you can choose the report that you want to generate. It will allow you to print the report exactly as seen (in black & white) on the screen (no extras). There are many reports. Each file will have the reports related to its data. For example, you go to the "Faculty" file to find reports about student enrollment per teacher.
A. If you have A tempo Deluxe:
To enroll a student in a class: 1) You must have a record for that student in the Students file. To create a record for a new student, click on the "New Record" button.
2) You must assign the student to a Department. If the student is studying piano, select "Piano"(on the Parent/Spouse Info tab).
Note: If you need to create a new Department, click on the blue triangle beside the field label "Departments" (on the new student's page). This will take you to the Departments file. Click on the "Detail View" button. Then, click on the "New Record" button. (A new department will need at least 1 section and at least 1 current class.) When you have filled out this page, click on the "Back" button a couple of times to go back to the new student's page. Now, the newly created department should appear with the old ones. Select the department.
3) Click on the tab "Current Classes." There you must first choose the Section. If the student is in Piano, then you can choose "Piano-private lessons". After choosing the Section, click on the big yellow button entitled "Click here to enroll the student in a New Class." You will be shown a drop-down list of classes related to the chosen Section. Select the class. That may seem like a lot of steps, but once the Department, with its Section(s) and Classes, has been created, you simply select the one that corresponds to that student.
B. If you have A tempo (basic):
If you are using the basic edition of version 3 or later, you create a new class by simply opening the Current Classes file found in the Main Menu.
You can change the headings to correspond to your own studio. You do that by going to the Main Menu, then clicking on the "Preferences" button. There you will have 5 tabs with fields that you can customize for your studio.
1) Place the CD in your computer. Access the CD by double-clicking on the icon on your desktop named "My Computer". Double-click on the CD icon (it may be named drive d:). This will show the contents of the CD. Double-click on the "A tempo" or "A tempo.exe" icon that is on the CD. This will bring up a dialogue that says "Extract to: ". The default is drive c:. 2) Click on the "Start button." Wait about 30 seconds while the files are un-compressed and placed on your C: drive in a new folder named A tempo. When you are told that the extraction is complete, remove the CD from your computer. 3) To create a shortcut (an icon that, when double-clicked, will start the program), and to place the shortcut on your desktop, you go to your c: drive. To get to the c: drive, double-click on "My Computer". Then double-click on the c: drive. You should see a folder named "A tempo." 4) Double-click on the folder "A tempo Folder ". That will open the folder and show the contents. 5) Look at the names of the folders and files that are inside the "A tempo" folder. Almost at the beginning of the list is a file named "A tempo" or "A tempo.exe" (In the Deluxe edition of version 3 it is called "A tempo Deluxe"). It should be right after a file named "_Read Me First". 6) Right-click once on the file named "A tempo" or "A tempo.exe". A menu list will appear. 7) Place the arrow cursor on "Send to". This will cause another menu list to appear. 8) Slide the arrow over to the new menu list and down to "Desktop (create shortcut)". Left-click once. That will create the shortcut on your desktop. It is named "Shortcut to A tempo." 9) From now on, you will be able to start A tempo by double-clicking on the shortcut on your desktop. You will not need to open the A tempo folder on your c: drive to start the program.
First, you will want to read the file "_Read Me First" by double-clicking on it. Second, be sure to open the folder named "Documentation" that is inside the A tempo folder on your c: drive. Then double-click on the file named "Gral Help". Print the file (about 8 pages) and use it as a guide and tutorial while learning the program. Third, if you want help about something on a particular screen, click on the question mark in the menu bar, and then click on the item that you want to clarify. Fourth, use the resources on our web site, such as this FAQ file. Fifth, email us for individual support.
Please be assured that the failure to close some files is not a problem. Files that are related to other files remain open as long as the related file is open. You do not need to close any of the files until you are ready to quit the program. At that time, you should always use the "Quit" button on the Main Menu screen. That will close all the files neatly before quitting A tempo.
When you start A tempo the "Backstor" file opens immediately. It stays open until you quit the program. It is needed for navigational purposes behind the scenes. You have no need to interact with it.
Concerning the fees for your piano lessons: If you have a version of A tempo earlier than version 3 or the Deluxe version of 3 or later,
A. Create the fees from the pertinent Section. For example, let's say that you have divided your Piano Department into 2 sections: "Private Lessons" and "Group Lessons'". (You must have at least one Section in each Department.) If you want to set up fees for private piano lessons, go to the Section called "Private Lessons". (You can get to the Sections file from the Main Menu. In the Main Menu, click on the "Organization" button and then on the "Department Sections" button.) Once in the Section called "Private Lessons", you will see the space for fees in the bottom right hand corner. Click on the button "New Fee." Then fill in the information about that new fee. It will automatically be linked to the Section "Private Lessons." If you click on the "Back" button, you will see that new fee in the Fees list.
B. Enroll the student in the pertinent Section. In an individual student's file, you should click on the "Current Classes" tab. The top section of that screen shows the Section(s) that you have created for the Department in which he is enrolled (you enrolled him in the Piano Department on the first tab "Parent/Spouse Info"). Select the correct Section (in this example, you would select "Private Lessons").
C. Now, when you are creating an invoice, the fees related to the correct Section should appear whenever you click the button labeled "Click to add Invoice Entry".
Note: If you are adding a new fee after having created an invoice, you may need to click the green triangle labeled "Refresh", which is just below the "Click to add Invoice Entry" button. This will refresh the list of fees. Note: If you have the basic edition of A tempo (version 3 or later), you create all fees by clicking on the Finances button in the Main Menu and then clicking on the Fees button.
You can approach discounts in several ways:
1) If your discount is calculated by percentage, you can use the discount feature to automatically calculate the percentage to be discounted. Or,
2) You can select the regular price fee and then change the amount on the invoice. You can also add extra words to the name of the fee (e.g.: "Monthly Piano Fee" could become "Monthly Piano - Siblings Fee"). Or,
3) You can create a new fee for that discounted situation, so that it is always available in the drop-down list. (Remember that a fee is attached to the Department Section, which makes it available to all the Classes in that Section.) You can have an unlimited number of fees.
If you give varying discounts without regard to percentage, I would recommend that you use the third method and create a different fee for each type of discount. Even then, you can always alter the amount and/or the words after selecting the fee from the drop-down list. If you have a lot of situations that require altering of the amount, you may prefer to leave the amount field blank when first creating the fee.
1.) You should enter each sibling separately in the Students file. This allows each sibling to have a separate history of performances and of classes completed in your studio. You can save several keystrokes: After entering one sibling's general data, use the Activities/Duplicate this Current Student Record that is found in the Menu Bar (Detail View).
2.) Each sibling should have a separate history of invoices and payments. You must calculate the amount of the check that is to be designated for one of the siblings and then enter that amount with check number for that sibling. Then, you must do the same for the other sibling. This is the only way to keep complete records of invoices and payments related to each student.
There is a quick way to enter payments for siblings: 1) In the Students file, click on the "Find Record" button. 2) Then, in the "Last Name" field, enter the last name of the siblings (or the first few letters of their last name). 3) Next, press the Return/Enter key (or click on the "Continue" button). This finds only the students who share that last name (you can verify that by clicking on the "List View" button). 4) When you have finished entering the invoice and payment information for one sibling, click on the "Students" button or the "Back" button to return to that student. 5) Next, use the arrow buttons at the top of the window to go to the next sibling.
You cannot print the General Helps from within A tempo. You must leave A tempo, open the Documentation folder that is inside the A tempo folder, and then open the Gral. Help file by double-clicking on it. Then you should be able to print it. The file contains all the information found in the seven General Help screens inside A tempo. Note: In the Mac version 3, some of the General Help files found in the Documentation folder are corrupted and cannot be printed. This has been corrected in version 3.0.4.
On our web site, you should right-click on both of the files that are for Windows. One of them gives you instructions for getting started. The larger one is the program itself. When you right-click on one of the files, you are given several choices. Choose the one that says "Save as..." or "Save the target file as..." Then you are given the opportunity to determine where on your hard drive to save the file. Be sure to note in which folder, or on what drive, the file is going to be saved. It may take several minutes to download the larger file (it is 5 megabytes in size). Read the other file to know how to install it.
You must choose the type of marker that you want to use for keeping the attendance. That is done in the Preferences file (accessed on the Main Menu screen), on the last tab (Miscellaneous 2). Click there in the empty box, and choose from the drop-down list. You can edit the list if you want. Then return to the Attendance sheet. Now you should see the marker when you click in any lesson box.
15. I have version 3.0.2. When I click on the Activity in the Students file called "Find All Students in a Department, it doesn't work.
The script that runs that activity has a bug which has been fixed in the subsequent updates. For now, you can do either of two things: you can run the report entitled "Enrollment by Department-detail". Or, you can click on the "Find Record" button, select the Department that you want to find (on the Parent/spouse tab), click also on the "Active" field, then click on "Continue".
16. I teach mainly private lessons. What use would I have for the Class feature in A tempo?
I also teach private lessons (violin). So, I created a class for each day of the week that I have pupils--Monday, Tuesday, etc. Then I assigned each student to the corresponding class; those that come on Monday are enrolled in the class called "Monday", and so on. That allowed me to take advantage of the features tied to Classes, such as the Class Attendance Sheet. On the Attendance Sheet for the class called "Monday" are placed automatically all the students enrolled in that class. The Attendance Sheet can be used on the screen or printed out and used manually. You will see that on the Attendance Sheet are fields for the date of each class. These dates can be set up for up to 54 lessons with the help of A tempo in a matter of a couple of minutes! Holidays can be accounted for and subsequent dates adjusted very easily. That means that a teacher can set up the dates for her lessons and classes in a matter of 2 or 3 minutes! My private pupils are also enrolled in a second class that reflects the level of study that each one is presently working on. Since I teach with the Suzuki method, these classes are called "Suzuki Vol.1", "Suzuki Vol 2", etc. This class enrollment by level allows me to use the one-button feature that, upon the student's completion of that level, takes the class name out of Current Classes and places it on the list of "Classes Completed". Thus, a history of what the pupil has accomplished in our studio is easily created and can be printed out as a "Statement of Classes Completed". In doing all of this, I have not had to type anything at all since I first created the class names in the Current Classes file. My violin pupils also have a group class every 2 weeks. So, I created classes called "Group A" and Group B" and enrolled the pupils in their corresponding group class. That means that many of my pupils are enrolled in three classes, which is no problem at all in A tempo. The dates on these Attendance Sheets can be set up as weekly, bi-weekly, or other intervals.
17. I use a Mac computer. I have tried to download the MacZip utility. It seemed to show up on my computer, but after I closed my browser I couldn't find it on my hard drive.
From your description of the disappearing act that MacZip does, it sounds as if the file is not actually being downloaded to your hard drive. Do you have a folder on your hard drive where all downloaded files are placed? The MacZip file (zipped) or the MacZip folder (unzipped) should be in that download folder. The unzipped folder will be called "MacZip 1.06 final".
Why not try once again to download the file by clicking on the file while holding down the Control key? That should give you a list of options, including "dowload link to disk" (as seen in Internet Explorer), or in Netscape 4.6, "Save this link as...". Choosing that option will show where the file will be deposited and clicking on "Save" will start the download.
However, if you cannot find MacZip on your hard drive after clicking to download it from our web site, then you might want to download it from the following address:
http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/2001-20-0.html
When you reach that address, type MacZip into the "Search" box, and it will take you to it.
Once you have MacZip on your hard drive, the only precaution you need to take with the A tempo zipped file is to be sure to unzip them with MacZip. Stuffit will want to unzip it automatically, but even if you can't stop Stuffit from doing so, you can find the still-zipped A tempo file on your hard drive and use MacZip to unzip it (you will want to delete the A tempo files that Stuffit unzips).
Yes, you can import data from other software, even data that is in Quickbooks. Since Quickbooks uses its own system for record-keeping, you must first convert the Quickbooks information to another format. You can find out how by looking up "Exporting" in the Quickbooks help. You should change the data to a more standard format such as tab-delimited, which is data separated by tab inserts. Then you can import into A tempo. Some software programs use a format that A tempo can import directly.
Once you are ready to import, you will find in the topmost menu bar "Files/Import Records". Selecting that option will start the process. You can indicate from which file to do the importing and then align the fields. Some fields may not match in regard to their function or location. For example, A tempo stores phone numbers in a separate file from the other student data, so you may have to re-enter the phone numbers.
Sending email is done from 2 different points. Once you have entered an email address for a student or a teacher (in the same box with telephone numbers), a special icon appears beside that address. Clicking on that icon should bring up your email software that you normally use on your computer. If your email software is not a rare brand, you should be given a window for a new email letter, and the student's email address should be already entered into the "Send To:" box. I haven't tested this on all possible combinations, so I would appreciate knowing if yours works properly and what software you use for emailing.
The other place for emailing is found on the "Create a Merge Document" screen, which is one of the "Activities" listed at the top of the Detail View in the Students file. When you create a document on this page, you can then save, print, or email it. The difference here is that you are given the option of sending the document to one student or to all the "Found" students (that is, all those that currently appear in the List View).
In the Windows version of A tempo, sending to multiple students entails creating a new window in the email software for each student. I have an alternate method for multiple emails that uses the multiple recipients feature of your email software, but it shows all the names and addresses to whom you are emailing. For that reason, I did not use this simpler method of multiple emails. However, the possibility exists that sending emails to a large number of students at one time might use too much memory and cause your program to freeze. That depends on how much memory you have in your computer. I haven't had it freeze yet. The beauty of the method I elected for multiple emails is that you can use the fields from the drop-down list of "Fields" to customize each message to each student.
20. When I try to create a new Department Section by using the button labeled "Create a New Section" on the Detail View in the Departments file, it seems to create a new Section, but, instead of taking me to a blank page for the new section, it shows me a Section that was previously created. How can I finish entering the information for the new Section?
You have discovered a bug in version 3. If you return to the detail view of the Department, you will see in the list of Sections a blank space among the other Section names. Clicking on that blank space will take you to the newly-created Section page, where you can finish entering the information. This bug has been fixed in version 3.0.4.
21. I want to do a backup on floppies. How can I copy only the data files in A tempo?
The easiest way to transfer your data files (the ones that contain information that you have entered into A tempo, such as the students' name and address, is to copy only the files that end with ".fp5". These files are the ones that are created when you click on the button labeled "Back up all Files" that is on the Main Menu screen. The backup files are located in the A tempo folder. The backup files may occupy as many as 10 or more MB of space, so you will probably need at least 10 floppies.
22. I clicked on the button labeled "Back up all Files". But, when I looked in the A tempo folder, I did not see any backup files, that is, files that end with ".fp5".
Your computer (Win) may not be configured to show the extensions of files. To change the configuration, you can go to the Windows menu bar for the window that shows the files in the A tempo folder. Click on "Tools". Then click on "Folder Options". Then, click on the tab labeled "View". In the list of options that appears, click on "Hide file extensions for known file types". That will delete the check mark in the box beside the option. Now, all your files will show an extension. (This explanation is based on the ME version of Windows. Other versions may vary somewhat in the details.)
23. I have a system of charging separately for materials and tuition. How can I integrate that into A tempo?
You can easily keep up with your system of charging. You can create one fee that includes the materials and another fee for tuition. To track either of those fees, you can use the Report "A Certain Invoice Item by Date" in the Invoices file. This report isolates any particular fee and allows you to specify the period of time (e.g., last month, or last quarter, or last year) that you want to look at.
24. My tuition fee is collected in three installments. How do I keep up with the installments?
If you have a 3-payment plan for tuition, you can record that in either of 2 ways:
1) You would first create a fee for the entire tuition amount. That is most
easily done from within the corresponding Section(s), since each fee is attached
to a Department Section.
2) When you create an invoice, the first field that you enter on the Invoice
Entry Form is the "Payment Terms". Here, after editing the drop-down
list of options by adding "3 payments", you can select "3 payments",
and the invoice will calculate the amount for each of 3 equal payments.
3) Next, click on the yellow button labeled "Click to Add Invoice Entry".
In the drop-down list of fees that appears, select the fee that reflects the
entire tuition amount.
4) As you receive each payment, you will enter the payment into the payment
section of this same invoice. The "Balance Due" field will automatically
adjust each time you add a payment to the invoice. The latest invoice is easily
found at the top of the list of invoices showing on the "Invoices and Payments"
tab in the student's record inside the Students file. Clicking the blue triangle
beside that invoice will take you to that Invoice Entry Form.
B. Using 3 separate invoices
to track the transactions
1) Create a fee that reflects a third of the entire tuition.
2) On the Invoice Entry Form, in the "Payment Terms" field, select
"1 payment now".
3) After clicking on the yellow button labeled "Click to Add Invoice Entry",
select from the drop-down list of fees the fee that is 1/3 of the entire tuition.
4) Mark this invoice as "Recurring" and assign it to a batch called
"3 Payments" or something similar (you can edit this drop-down list
of batches, also).
5) When you receive the first of 3 tuition payment installments, attach it to
this invoice.
6) When the time comes to collect the second payment, select the Activity (in
the Students file or the Invoices file) called "Duplicate a Batch of Invoices".
Select the appropriate batch. This will, in a matter of a few seconds, create
a new invoice for each pupil whose first invoice was assigned to this batch.
7) Enter the second payment onto this new invoice. It only takes a few seconds
to enter the payment because usually the only item you have to enter is the
check number; even the amount of the check is automatically entered for you.
(You can easily locate the correct invoice from within the student's record
in the Students file. Click on the "Invoices and Payments" tab in
the student's record and then click the blue triangle beside the correct invoice,
which is usually the latest invoice found at the top of the list of invoices.)
8) Repeat the steps #6 and #7 for the third payment.
9) If you want to print all or some of these invoices, use the Activity called
"Print a batch of Invoices".
25. I'm having difficulty
printing labels of only the active students. When some of the labels don't print
correctly, how can I print only those that need re-printing? Also, why can't
I use size 12 fonts on the labels?
There are several ways to
control the group of records whose names you want to put onto labels:
1. If you have the latest version of A tempo (3.1.4 or later), your Activity
in the Students file called "Find Students enrolled in a Class" (or
Section or Department) should find only those who are active students.
2. You can look at the detail view of the students and use "Omit this Record",
one of several options found in the top-most menu bar under "Records".
Use this as you scroll through the records that are showing, in order to omit
the ones that you do not want from the printing process.
3. You can click on the "Find Record" button in the Students file
and then select the "Active" field before continuing with the Find
process.
4. If you want to pull up only certain names that were left off the printed
sheet, you can have A tempo "Show All Records" (found in the topmost
menu bar under "Records"), and then omit each one of those that you
want to use. After you have omitted them, select from the same drop-down list
"Show Omitted". This will cause only the previously-omitted records
to show. Then, when you print the labels, only those names will appear.
Concerning the size 12 font: I needed to restrict the number of selections and
decided that size 10 could substitute for size 12. So, for now, you cannot use
size 12 font.
26. I would like to provide a spot on the invoice for the parents to put their credit card number. How could I do that?
You can use the Notes field at the bottom of the invoice to create instructions for placing the credit card number and expiration date. Along with the instructions, you can use the Underline key to create spaces for those numbers. These instructions will be saved in the drop-down list, so you can use them repeatedly.
27. How should I handle overpayments?
The overall balance of a student's account reflects any balance due or credit.
This does not change when the student finishes the current class and is enrolled
in another class; the balance continues to reflect amounts due or credit due.
You can handle a payment in more than one way:
1) When you receive a check from a student who has a balance due from, say,
2 months ago, you can go back to the invoice that was not paid in full and apply
the new payment to that invoice. This will leave that invoice with a zero balance
and will adjust the overall balance of the student's account by the same amount.
2) Another way to handle the payment is to apply it to the latest invoice. This
may cause that invoice to show a credit, but it will adjust the overall balance
to the proper amount. We have used the latter method in cases where the student
was terribly in arrears and was writing a large check to partially pay off the
balance.
An overpayment works the same way. Wherever you apply an overpayment,
that invoice will show a credit. The overall balance will also indicate a credit
if the payments total is greater than the invoices total. When you create the
next invoice for that student, you can adjust the amount of the invoice to allow
for the credit accrued.
Currently, there is not a one-step procedure for issuing refunds. If you issue
a refund check for the overpaid amount, you can handle it in the following way.
You can create in the Expenses file a category for Refunds and relate the check
to that category. You would then add to the overpaid invoice an invoice item
called "Overpayment" and enter the amount that was overpaid. That
will bring the invoice balance back from "Credit" to zero and the
refund check that you wrote as an "Overpayment" expense will counter-balance
the extra income. You will not want to enter a teacher's name with the "Overpayment"
invoice item.
I will check on a simpler method that we might apply. Suggestions are welcome.
28. Why are Deposits limited in the number of payments that can be processsed at a time?
I had to have a limit to
the number of payments per deposit, simply because of the system that I chose
for creating and displaying the detail view in the "Bank Deposits"
file. By the way, my experience with one bank had shown me that that bank has
a limit to the number of payments that they can process per deposit (when someone
brings in a deposit that exceeds the number that they can process, they create
multiple deposits to handle it). So, I figured that the limitation in A tempo
was not too much out of the ordinary.
In the Version 3.2 update to A tempo, I made several improvements:
1) I increased the limit from 30 to 60 because I calculated that to be the maximum
amount that would comfortably fit onto one sheet of paper.
2) I also created a way to alert the user when the number of payments exceeds
60. In fact, the user cannot complete the deposit process until he or she reduces
the number of payments for this deposit.
3) I added numbering to the list of payments to be deposited, so that the user
knows how many payments he or she is dealing with.
4) I changed some of the hidden processing to be more efficient.
When the deposit has been completed and correctly printed, A tempo then records
the deposit in the "Bank Deposit" file and removes those payments
from the list of payments waiting to be deposited. The payments that still have
not been deposited can then be placed on a new deposit slip. Most of this is
done automatically, so the creation of a new deposit requires very little time.
29. Where is the Calendar
that I've heard about?
You asked about finding
the calendar in A tempo. There is a calendar--not nearly so big as the one in
A tempo Institute--, and you can find it by going, in the Students file, to
the "Current Classes" tab. There, in the row beside the name of the
Class in which the student is enrolled, is a button labeled "Attendance
Sheet". Clicking on that button takes you to the Attendance Sheet page,
which is part of the Classes file (you can also get there by going first to
the Classes file via the "Current Classes" button in the Main Menu).
On each Attendance Sheet is the button "Enter/Adjust Dates". Clicking
on that button takes you to the work page for setting up the schedule of lessons
for that Class. There, you can utilize the Calendar to select a date for a lesson.
The instructions on the page should help you navigate on that page.
The Calendar is available on other screens, also, such as the Detail View in
the Current Classes file, the Detail View in the Dated Performances file, and
the Detail View, "Loaned to" tab in the Assets file.
30. How do I find a particular
Student in the Students file?
Concerning looking for a
particular Student's file--you do need to click first on the "Find Record"
button. When the drop-down list of students appears, you can select the desired
student, and then click on the "Continue" button that appears on the
left column.
There are other ways to find the student:
1) As an alternative, after clicking on the "Find Record" button,
you can type the first 2 or 3 letters of the last name. That will scroll to
the student(s) that have those letters in the last name. Using your arrow keys
(down or up) to select the name and then pressing your ENTER key on your keyboard
TWICE will bring up that record.
2) Another method--useful for finding all siblings in a family--is to click
first on "Find Record" button, and then, in the "Last Name"
field, type the first few letters of the last name, then press the ENTER key.
3) You can use the List View in the Students file to find your student. Be sure
that all records are showing (go to "Records/Show All Records" in
the uppermost menu bar), then click on the blue triangle to the left of the
student (or on the student's name).
31. Can I keep up with prospects in A tempo?
A tempo will work fine for
keeping up with prospects. Simply create a new Section and/or Department and
call it something like "Prospects". Create a Class within that Section
and enroll all your prospects into that Class. When they actually enroll in
your studio, you simply take them out of the Prospects Class and enroll them
in their proper class.
Creating this Prospects Section will throw off your enrollment numbers if you
include the prospects in the enrollment report, but it works well for keeping
up with them.