GENERATIONS QUICK START GUIDE

Transcription

1 GENERATIONS QUICK START GUIDE Everything you need to know and do to get started with Generations!

2 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome To Generations Homecare System Before Installation What you need to do before you install the program. The Installation Process A step-by-step guide to installing Generations. First Things First Considering Company Settings, Timesheet Weeks, Service Codes, and Payroll Items. Master Lists Customize the program to reflect your clients and caregivers. QuickBooks Integration A few words about how to prepare QuickBooks for integrating with Generations. And Then Some other tools to help you along the way. Connection Guide If you are having difficulty connecting to your server, see this guide. For Further Training And Technical Support Learn about the many options you have.

3 3 Welcome to Generations Thank you for selecting Generations Homecare System. We hope you ll be delighted with the program and how it will manage the day-to-day aspects of your homecare business. Generations is feature-rich, and pretty easy to get started with, but there are a lot of things to think about when you first start! This guide walks you through the most important items to consider before, during, and after installation. We encourage you to think about the many things this guide discusses and write down some notes. After all, taking a little time now will save you hours in the future. If you want to know more about each of the areas, please look at the Documentation area of Help in Generations. The area is updated on a regular basis and contains the most detailed and accurate information on how to use Generations. And, like everything else in Generations, it s easy to understand. If you run into any bumps in the road getting started, don t hesitate to contact our support department via Live Chat. Chat is the best and fastest way to get assistance. We re available Monday-Friday 9am-5pm Eastern and you can access Live Chat from either the Help area of Generations or from our website

4 4 Before Installation Before installing Generations, take time to plan how you will both install the program and how you will use the program in your business. Use this handy checklist to keep track of all the little details! 1. If you purchased or leased Generations, which computer will be your server computer? NOTE: The server computer must be on at all times to allow users to access the data in Generations. For this reason, choose your most powerful desktop computer. 2. How many computers will you install Generations on? 3. If you purchased or leased, are your computers networked? YES NO NOTE: Your computers must be networked for Generations to work properly. The network can be wireless or wired. You will need to speak to a computer specialist about establishing a network in your office. Integrated Database Systems, Inc. does not provide network services. 4. Are you currently using a software program? YES NO NOTE: In many cases, if you can move the data from your current program into an Excel spreadsheet, we can import contact data into Generations for you to help ease the transition to a new program. This is a one-time only import. 5. Are there firewalls on your network? YES NO ASK MY COMPUTER PRO NOTE: Sometimes firewalls will interfere with the initial communication between the server computer and the client computers. It may be necessary to temporarily disable the firewalls on both the client and server computers to allow the client computer to establish a path to the server computer. Once that path is established, the firewalls can be turned back on. Refer to the Connection Guide for further information on troubleshooting firewalls. You will need to be able to access the server computer to do this. 6. Do your computers at least meet or exceed the minimum requirements for Generations? YES NO 7. Did you also choose to get started with Telephony? YES NO If so, refer to the telephony quick start guide that will be ed separately.

5 5 The Installation Process Before beginning, please read through the entire installation process to be sure you understand what you will be doing. You will complete four steps: 1. If you purchased or leased the program, install SQL Express on the server computer. 2. Install Generations on all computers including the server computer. 3. Create a database. 4. Connect your computers to that database. Step One: Install SQL Express on your server computer. NOTE: This step is only necessary if you have purchased or leased Generations. If we are hosting your database, you do not need to install SQL Express. Insert the Generations CD and select the link for Install SQL Server. Follow the directions on the screen. During the installation you can select the installation directory and data file directory; unless you have a reason to change it, we recommend that you leave the default. Step Two: Install Generations on all computers including the server computer. 1. Insert the Generations CD and select the link for Install Generations. 2. If prompted, approve and continue through the installation of Visual J# and Visual C++. These are things that are necessary for the program to run. 3. Read the licensing agreement and agree to continue. 4. Click through each of the installation prompts, including those for QuickBooks. Allow Generations to determine the default settings for directories unless you have a reason to change it. Most people will leave the default settings. 5. Enter your license key. The license key is shipped to you or can be obtained by contacting support via live chat. The license key is the same for all of your computers. If you have more than one office, you will need a separate key for each office. NOTE: Sometimes the license key box will hide in the task bar. Simply click the box and enter the license key to continue.

6 6 Step Three: Create A Database 1. After Generations is installed on all of your computers, return to the server and open Generations. 2. Click the Get Servers button and select your server from the dropdown list next to the button. The server will end with SQLEXPRESS\IDBS or \IDBS. The name of my server is 3. Click Create Database and enter a name for your database when prompted. Do not use spaces, special characters, or numbers in the name of the database. If you are unsure what to name the database, then simply name it Generations. The name of my database is 4. The database will be created and you will be prompted to run updates. Allow all of the updates to download and install. Step Four: Connect All Users To The Database 1. Go to a computer that has Generations installed on it and open the program. At the SQL login screen, click Get Servers and select your server. 2. Once you have selected your Server, click Get Databases. Click the database drop down list and choose the database that you just created. 3. Click Open Database. 4. The database will be opened and you will be prompted to run updates. Allow all of the updates to download and install. Need Assistance With Installation? See Technical Support at the end of this Quick Start Guide. We re happy to help you in any way that we can.

7 7 Experiencing Connection Issues? See the Connection Guide at the end of the Quick Start Guide. Congratulations! You ve installed Generations on all of your computers. Now let s take a look at the things you need to do first with the program.

8 8 First Things First There is a lot of excitement when Generations first arrives in your office so many possibilities, and so little time to accomplish everything you want to. Follow these steps to get the most important things taken care of in the program first. Company Settings Company Settings establishes information system-wide. There are five tabs of information in this area, but you don t need to worry about all of it immediately. Have the following information ready to refer to: Company Name Tax ID Number Address City, State, Zip Phone Number On what day does your pay period end? Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Will you use a custom logo? NOTE: Custom logos must be.jpg and no more than 200K. The optimal shape is a square that is 48x48 pixels. How do you identify your caregivers? Social Security Number Caregiver Number By default are new caregivers NOTE: If you are going to use QuickBooks, you must use Social Security Numbers. Employees or Vendors (Independent contractors) Do you pay overtime after 40 hours? Do you apply all hours to the START DATE of the shift? Do you SPLIT shifts worked at midnight?

9 9 Timesheet Weeks You must create Timesheets Weeks immediately after you have established your basic Company Settings. In Generations timesheets are based on schedules and also use the parameters you establish in Company Settings. Billing and payroll are based on your timesheets and not on schedules. If your pay period is a standard number of days like 7 days or 14, then Generations can create the timesheet weeks for you. However, if your pay period is different (perhaps you pay on the 15 th and last day of the month), you need to manually create the timesheet weeks. My pay period end day (from Company Settings) Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Our most recent pay period was Start Date: End Date: A typically pay period has number of days I pay in a standard number of days (ie., 7 or 14 days.) Use Automatic Create I pay in a different number of days (ie., the 15 th and last day of the month) Use Automatic Create for ONE week only, then Manually enter additional weeks. Access maintain timesheet weeks from the Timesheets drop down list at the top of the program.

10 10 Service Codes The term service codes in Generations is synonymous with billing rates. Service codes define the type and cost of each service your agency provides. Generations assumes that your rates are hourly unless you check the Flat Rate box. Take some time now to think about how you will charge clients for services. The columns to be immediately concerned with include: Description: This appears in scheduling dropdown lists. Short Description: This appears on the scheduling calendar, in timesheets, on reports, and on the invoice in QuickBooks. Type: Type can be either service or other charge. Most descriptions will be services. Examples of other charges include mileage, travel time, and supplies. Cost: This is how much you charge the client for the service, the billing rate. Flat Rate: Put a check mark in this box if the rate is charged per shift, not hourly. The other columns relate to the CMS1500 claim form. If you do not utilize that form, you can ignore the additional fields. If you do use that form, you can populate those areas at a later time.

11 11 Use this form to write down the service codes you will use. NOTE: If you are currently using QuickBooks, you will be able to import this information into Generations. Description Short Description Type Cost Flat Rate

12 12 Payroll Items and Payroll Rates The payroll item master list is where you define the name of the payroll items. The actual rates are defined in the individual caregiver s file. Caregivers can be paid different rates for different services; therefore, you may want to have a different payroll item for each service you offer. It is appropriate, for example, you may have one payroll item for a Live In Shift (probably a flat rate) and another for a Regular Visit (hourly rate.) Take some time now to think about the different types of work your caregivers do. You may only have a couple of payroll items at this time and you can always add more at a later date. The columns to be immediately concerned with include: Payroll Item Name: This is the name of the rate. Flat Rate: Put a check mark in this box if the rate is paid per shift, not hourly. You do not need to be concerned about the other columns at this time. Use this form to write down the payroll items you will use. NOTE: If you are currently using QuickBooks, you will be able to import this information into Generations. Payroll Item Flat Rate Payroll Item Flat Rate

13 13 Master Lists Masters Lists in Generations allow you to customize the program to reflect the realities of your business. There are many Master Lists in Generations. As you re able, fill these lists out with information that is appropriate for your business. Be sure to concentrate on Master Lists for Needs/Skills, Note Types, and Reminders first. Many Master Lists can be accessed from the Main Screen of Generations and include Case Managers, Classification, Payors, and more. You can also access Master Lists from the dropdown menus at the top of the screen, and some (but not all) Master Lists can be accessed from within the client or caregiver individual files by clicking on a magnifying glass to the right of the particular drop down list. Agencies When you enter a Case Manager, you can associate them with an agency. The Agency master list is where you maintain a list of the agencies associated with your case managers. If you have many case managers working for the same agency, you only need to enter the agency data one time. Case Managers Use this list to maintain information on your case managers. Class In QuickBooks, class tracking is used to separate caregivers by different regions (typically for agencies with multiple locations) and enables reporting on expenses and revenues by each assigned class. You can import classes from QuickBooks, and caregivers can be assigned to only one class. Learn more about class tracking in the QuickBooks Help area. Classification This list is used to indicate the skill level that your caregivers have. For example: RN, LPN, Home Health Aide, and so on. Client Type This list is used to separate clients for billing purposes. There is no limit to the number of client types you can create; however, a client can only be assigned to one client type at a time. All billing functions allow you to filter by client type. One way to use Client Type is to separate your Medicaid waiver clients from private pay clients. Note: You can import Client Types from QuickBooks. Holidays Do you pay and bill holidays at a different rate than regular days? Then you may want to consider establishing holidays in Generations. Any shift that occurs on a holiday you establish will be paid and billed at the factor you specify. If you pay or bill holidays differently, then you should establish service codes and payroll items specifically for holidays and then schedule with those codes.

14 14 Location If you have multiple offices, use Location to identify which office the client belongs to. You can secure your database by Location in the Security area and use the Mass Update Utility to apply locations to specified clients. *Note Type concentrate on these! Notes in Generations are used to document each interaction you have with clients, caregivers, or referral source. Note types refer to the different general subjects you would discuss with each group. Note types appear in the Call Center, Referral Sources area, and in client and caregiver files. Here are some of the typical notes types used for each group; use this list to think about note types that you will utilize. You can also find additional sample note types in the Help area of Generations. Note Type Billing Schedules Care Plan Client Note Types Purpose For recording information about billing questions For scheduling issues For information about the type of care the client requires Caregiver Note Types Note Type Purpose Timesheets/Paychecks For discussions about timesheets or paychecks Call Off For recording when a caregiver calls off a shift Vacation For when a caregiver wants a vacation Hiring Process For recording information about the various steps in the hiring process

15 15 Note Type Send information Phone Referral Note Types Purpose For recording when you are to send information (brochures, flyers, etc.) about your services to a referral source. For recording when you have an exchange with a referral source. For recording details about a phone conversation Payor A payor is an individual or organization that you bill for services provided to a specific client. Payors are assigned to clients on the client intake form and maintained in the Payor Master List. Physician The Physician Master List allows you to store contact information on the physicians your agency works with. Physicians are assigned to clients on the client intake form and on the Plan of Care. Reasons Clients and caregivers can have a status of Active or Inactive (clients can also be Pending. ) Reason is used to further define the status. The Reason Master List can be populated with as many items as you desire. For each reason, specify if it is for caregivers, clients, or both.

16 16 Referrals Use the Referrals Master List to manage your referrals by adding in various details including mailing and addresses. You can also record your interactions with the referral sources from either the Call Center or from within the individual referral source s file. You can easily add this referral to your Outlook contacts from here, too. For each referral source, you can identify their status (active, inactive pending) or type (hospital, agency, physician, etc..) This is where you establish the referral note types discussed above. *Reminders concentrate on these! Use the Reminders Master List to track important date-driven information such as TB Tests, client recertification, caregiver reviews, birthdays, trainings, and anything else you can think of. Totally customizable, this list allows you to create reminders that fit your business.

17 17 Take some time now to list things that you typically need to be reminded of. Refer to the list above for ideas. Note there is a separate column for clients and caregivers, and a checkmark indicates whether the reminder is for clients, caregivers, or both. Description Caregivers Clients *Skills/Needs Master List Concentrate on these! The Master List of Skills and Needs is utilized to better match caregivers to clients. This is a totally customizable list and should reflect the needs of your clients and the skills of your caregivers and they share the same list.

18 18 Take some time now to think about the different needs your clients have, and the skills your caregivers have. Use the below list and start to establish a Master List of Needs and Skills for your business. Our Needs and Skills Timespan Timespan calculates when the next supervisory visit is due to the client.

19 19 QuickBooks Integration We will help you get QuickBooks and Generations working together. We ve gone through the steps so many times it s easy for us! Before that happens, though, there are a few things for you to consider when beginning the QuickBooks and Generations integration: 1. QuickBooks must be in multi-user mode, and the initial connection should be done by a QuickBooks Administrator. Have your user name and password handy. 2. If you will be transferring Timesheets from Generations to QuickBooks, you must have Time Tracking enabled in QuickBooks. This can be found in QuickBooks under Edit>Preferences. 3. For Caregivers, you need to know if they will be employees or vendors (independent contractors.) Employees must have a social security number, vendors must have a Tax ID, and both must have a first and last name. 4. If a client has both a shipping and billing address in QuickBooks, and the addresses are different, then Generations imports the shipping address as the client s home address, and the billing address as a Payor. If there is only a billing address (or the billing and shipping addresses are the same,) Generations assigns the billing address as the client s home address and no additional Payor will be established in Generations. For extensive detail on the QuickBooks integration process, please refer to the Help area of Generations.

20 20 And Then Here are a couple of other areas of Generations that you should be aware of. They ll help you along your way to becoming a more productive, organized, and profitable agency. Try to not leap forward into these more advanced tools until you ve started on basic information: service codes, timesheet weeks, payroll items, payroll rates, note types, needs and skills, and reminders. Mass Update Located on the Main screen, the Mass Update Utility enables you to assign field values to many clients or many caregivers at the same time. This can greatly decrease the amount of time it takes to modify your data and ensures accuracy. For example, if you have a case manager assigned to many clients and that case manager is replaced, you can use the Mass Update Utility to change all the client records without having to update clients one at a time. We strongly recommend anytime you do a mass update no other users of Generations are editing clients or caregivers! 1. Select the area to mass update 2. Use the arrow button to assign fields to your clients or caregivers. 3. Click mass update The Call Center The Call Center is crucial for the day-to-day operations of your business, and can significantly impact your customer relationship management. Start by using the call center as a central point for recording all communication that comes into your office. Record notes that result from phone conversations with clients, caregivers, referral sources, and anyone else who you speak with during the course of your business day. The Call Center contains the same note types that you establish for clients, caregivers, and referral sources. When you choose the name of the client or caregiver, Generations automatically enters the date and time the call was entered, the user who entered the call (provided security is enabled,) and the date/time the call was closed, or resolved. Used properly, the Call Center can become an agency wide To Do list. Remember there are no limits to the length of text that can be entered in the description area. That means you can be very detailed regarding the situation if necessary. Use the Call Center all of the time and make this an integral part of your business practice. If a caregiver calls to say they cannot make it in to work, record a note in the Call Center. If a client calls to inquire about an invoice, record a note in the Call Center. If a caregiver refuses to take an offered shift, record a note in the Call Center. If a client calls to say they will not need service for a period of time, record a note in the Call Center. In fact, once you re used to using the Call Center, you can record these notes as you re on the phone with the person!

21 21 Scheduling To add a schedule in Generations, you must have several components: Service Codes Payroll Items Client Caregiver (must have name, social security number, and payroll rate) Payroll Rate If you ve been following this guide closely, you probably already have most of these things in Generations already, or at least be thinking about them. Generations is designed to create schedules long-term. If the case is continuing indefinitely, we recommend you schedule for six months to a year in advance. If you have been accustomed to creating schedules every week or month you will need to change your business process to schedule long term and make edits and deletions as they occur. After you have been using the system for some time it will be necessary to extend your schedules for clients who you are still servicing. The Scheduled Service Ending report can be run weekly or monthly to identify schedules that may need to be extended in the system. Each schedule can have a status of confirmed or un-confirmed. As a best practice we recommend that you create schedules as un-confirmed. Then, once you have verified that the caregiver worked the shift, adjust the time to reflect actual hours worked and confirm the shift. If you use the telephony interface your schedules will confirm and update automatically. By default newly added schedules are confirmed. If you want to change the default setting, go to Company Settings > Calendar Options. This tab also allows you to Show the service code short description on the calendar Enable notes on the scheduling grid and timesheets Change the view of your schedules. This can be helpful if your payroll weeks run Tuesday to Monday and you want the calendar to reflect your payroll week. The default view is a standard calendar month.

22 22 Connection Guide If you re installing Generations and having issues with connecting, you may have a firewall blocking access. In fact, almost all connection problems have to do with firewalls because most firewalls will block access to all ports unless you specifically allow access. Therefore, if you are having problems connecting to your server and the server is running, the connection issue is most likely caused from a firewall blocking connectivity. Here are some things to try: 1. Verify that the server computer is turned on and running. 2. Turn off all firewalls on the server computer and on the client computer experiencing connectivity issues. Try to connect again. 3. With the firewalls turned off, go to the client computer with connectivity issues. Manually type in the name of the server in the place where the dropdown menu is location. Then click get databases (or create databases if applicable.) If you can get the server from the list, but receive a message like SQL Server does not exist or access is denied This message is typically seen when a third party firewall like Norton Security Center or McAfee Personal Firewall are running on the computer that cannot connect. You should either disable the firewall or establish an exception so that it trusts the server computer. This is done by setting the server computer with a static IP address and entering the IP address in the firewall settings. Before you try to do this, though, we strongly recommend that you disable the firewall temporarily and see if the client computer can connect to the server computer. Configuring Firewalls Configuring SQL Server Express for your firewall involves setting two programs as exceptions. If you are unsure how to do this, turn off the firewall temporarily and contact us for assistance on the configuration. The two programs to set as exceptions are: 1. sqlexpress.exe typically found in c:\program files\microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe (SQLEXPRESS/SQLEXPRESS 2005 only.) 2. sqlservr.exe found in the installation folder under MSSQL.1/MSSQL/Binn/sqlserver.exe Unsupported Firewalls Some firewalls will block SQL even if it is correctly setup. For this reason, Zone Alarm is not supported.

23 23 FOR FURTHER TRAINING AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT Further Training There are many options for additional training on Generations including: 1. Demo Database. This is available from the customer area of our website. 2. An extensive Help area that is updated every time the program is updated. Access the Help area of Generations by clicking on the large question mark in the upper right hand corner of the program or from the Help the drop down menu at the top of the program. 3. On-Demand Training Videos. These videos are built into the program and are a great way to get someone new to your office started with Generations. The videos can be accessed from the Help area of Generations or at the following website: 4. Webinars. These are on-line seminars taught by a member of our staff that focus on various aspects of Generations in detail. They are free and available for any member of your staff. The webinar schedule can be accessed from the Help area of Generations or from the following website: 5. One-on-one training. When you first start with Generations, we work with you one-on-one until you re comfortable with the program. After this initial training period, you may request training from our support staff and they will schedule a meeting with you. Please note that one-on-one training is limited and based on the support staff s schedule. Sometimes it s better to come into Live Chat and we ll help you right then and there. 6. An extensive Knowledge Base is also available to you for more technical answers to issues we see often. Technical Support Support is available Monday-Friday 9am-5pm Eastern Time. Live Chat: Phone: Click on the live chat link found at support@idb-sys.com Only use the support phone if Live Chat is not working or if you do not have internet. We check messages throughout the day. (989) extension 2.