Table of Contents
Baseline Configuration General Guide
Updated
by Kristen Fiddes
In this guide, we will be highlighting each of the settings and configuration pages that should be configured to complete a baseline Sonar integration. For each page we will discuss its general purpose, provide a quick setup guide, and a link to the deeper documentation on each page.
System Settings
This is the page where you setup the way that dates, times, and currencies display, as well as other system wide settings like defaults for new addresses.
Quick Setup Guide
Set the timezone based on Continent, then Capital city
List of Time Zones in Sonar System Settings
Put in the default country and city info so that adding new addresses is easier for your employees.
Detailed Documentation
Companies
This is where you setup the company information that will appear on invoices and automatic emails.
Quick Setup Guide
Click "Create Company" in the top right to get started
If you want the name of your company in Sonar to match the name on the remittance slips of your invoices and the same name your company gets checks for, enter your company name in the "Name" and "Checks payable to" fields. If you want a different name on the remittance slips of your invoices, enter that name in the "Checks payable to" field.
The colors only matter as a little identifier icon on to show which items belong to which companies. Don't waste your time setting these unless you have several companies and different processes for each.
If your company doesn't accept physical checks, it's probably a good idea to leave "Show remittance slip" unchecked.
Country appears twice in case the remittance slip address and the country the company is based in do not match. In this rare case, the bottom one is where you want the checks to go. Most people will just enter the same country twice.
If we are building a customer portal for you, unless you specify otherwise we will just copy the logo that you upload here for the branding on your customer portal to match the invoice logo.
Detailed Documentation
How to: Setting Up a Company in Sonar
Billing > Bank Account Processors & Credit Card Processors
This is where you add the configuration settings. For bank accounts this either means adding the bank account info so that ACH Batches can be generated, or configuring some type of processor that processes the bank account similar to a credit card like IPPay or Authorize.net. GoCardless will also be setup here.
Quick Setup Guide
Bank Account Processors
You should already have a processor you are working with by the time you get to this stage. This is just a matter of recording the data they have given you in Sonar. If you choose not to use either payment method, you can skip that pages settings.
From Billing > Bank Account Processors, click the blue "Create Bank Account Processor" button in the top right. Check the "Enabled" and "Primary" boxes.
Based on the Bank Account Provider selected, you will have a multitude of different fields to add. In all cases, these fields should be provided from your bank provider. If you have any questions on which fields are which, start with the ACH Batching Overview. If you are still stuck we typically need to contact the bank where ACH is setup to confirm which names they use for these fields.
Credit Card Processors
You should already have a processor you are working with by the time you get to this stage. This is just a matter of recording the data they have given you in Sonar. If you choose not to use either payment method, you can skip that pages settings.
From Billing > Credit Card Processors, click the blue "Create Credit Card Processor" button in the top right. Check the "Enabled" and "Primary" boxes.
Based on the Provider selected, you will have a multitude of different fields to add. In all cases, these fields should be provided from your processor.
You should also have discussed and decided with your processor which card types you want to accept. Just make sure these settings match what you've already decided.
Detailed Documentation
Setting up Bank Account & Credit Card Processors
Billing > Billing Defaults
Here is where you setup the behavior that new accounts will inherit, based on when they are activated or specific days of the month.
Quick Setup Guide
If you've never automated billing before and the majority of your accounts are residential type, the most typical approach here would be to bring in all existing accounts with whatever expectations they have (ie: new invoices come out on the 1st each month for that months services), then setup new accounts as follows:
Bill Mode: Statement
Bill Day Mode: Anniversary Bill Day
Days After The Account Activation Day: (leave blank)
Due Days: 15
Grace Days: 10
Auto Pay Days: 0
Auto Pay Day: Billing Day
Due Day: Billing Day
Months to Bill: 1
No boxes checked
This will result in accounts getting billed the day they are installed and activated and the invoice showing as due 15 days after that install day. If you are unsure how to set this up, just be sure to talk to your Client Experience Manager about the what days of the next month you want things to happen on with a few examples and they will set this up on your behalf in the touch base call where you talk through and verify all the baseline settings.
Detailed Documentation
Billing > Billing Settings
This is where you set how things will prorate, what days accounts are allowed to become delinquent, how auto pay and processors work, as well as how printed invoice fees or late fees work.
Quick Setup Guide
Again, the most typical approach here is to set things up the way your customers are used to it. If you don't have a 24/7 support team, it's probably a good idea to set "Days to check delinquency" as a Monday through Friday event. Assuming you have no policies already in place, here would be a typical setup we may see in a primarily residential market:
Proration: Prorate Services, Prorate Service Quantity, Prorate Account Status Change, Prorate Billing Day Change
Accounting Period Auto Close: Close every day at 12 AM
Days to check delinquency: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Daily Billing: Unchecked
Auto Pay Runs Entire Amount Due: Checked
Generate Invoice On Account When First Activated: Checked
Minimum Credit Card Payment: 10
Minimum Bank Account Payment: 10
Minimum Amount Due for Delinquency: 25
Auto Pay Credit Card Attempts: 3
Auto Pay Credit Card Retry Interval In Days: 1
Auto Pay Bank Account Attempts: 1
Auto Pay Bank Account Retry Interval In Days: 1
Detailed Documentation
Billing > Delinquency Exclusions
This is where you set specific days you don't want accounts to become delinquent on.
Quick Setup Guide
Click the Create Delinquency Exclusion button in the top right
Name: New Years Day
Day: 1
Month: 1
Year: (leave blank)
This will make sure no accounts go delinquent on January 1 of any year.
Detailed Documentation
Delinquency Exclusions: Overview and Use Cases
Billing > General Ledger Codes
Add the general ledger codes you use in your accounting software so that we can map them to services when we import those.
Quick Setup Guide
Click the "Create General Ledger Code" button in the top right
You should just copy each code and description from your accounting software one by one. If you don't have these yet you should talk with your accountant to come up with a strategy here.
Detailed Documentation
General Ledger Codes: Overview
Billing > Taxes
This is where you setup the taxes that will work with serviceable addresses and services to create taxes on accounts.
Quick Setup Guide
Because there are so many different ways of doing this, I'm going to just leave the general approaches, and recommend everyone take a look at the detailed documentation.
Generally speaking, whatever taxes you had setup in your old system should be copied over one to one here. If you knew you were not taxing properly before, basically just build out all of the global taxes first, then the geography based taxes, then the different geography tax zones in each geography based tax. I will show two examples of how to use this below.
If you have an ISP that operates in a single state, you might build a tax like so:
Click the "Create Tax" button in the top right.
Name: State Tax
Application: Percentage
Rate: 6.25
Type: A tax that is applied to all customers, regardless of geography.
If you had an ISP that operated in multiple states, it probably makes more sense to build a tax with multiple zones:
Click the "Create Tax" button in the top right.
Name: State Tax
Application: Percentage
Rate: 0
Type: A tax that is only applied to a certain geography
Click Create Geo Tax Zone
Name: Texas State Tax
Rate: 6.25
Country: United States
Subdivision: Texas
(All other fields blank)
Click "Create"
Click Create Geo Tax Zone
Name: Oklahoma State Tax
Rate: 4.5
Country: United States
Subdivision: Oklahoma
(All other fields blank)
Click "Create"
Click Create Geo Tax Zone
Name: New Mexico State Tax
Rate: 5.125
Country: United States
Subdivision: New Mexico
(All other fields blank)
Click "Create"
Detailed Documentation
Communication > Email Domains
This is where you add the domain that we are going to use with the automated emails and ticketing system.
Quick Setup Guide
Click the "Create Email Domain" button in the top right
Add in the domain that you want to use for automated emails and ticketing in Sonar. You can add more than one, we just need to go through the DNS entries for each domain.
Once the domain has been created and displays in the list, click on the down arrow just to the right of the Verify button and you will see a "Send Verification Email" button. Type in your email. As soon as you hit create you will receive an email from Sonar. Don't worry about opening it, just forward it to verify@sonar.software. On our side we will take the forwarded email and verify your domain, typically within a few hours of receiving the email.
You also need to add two txt records to your DNS server for the domain that has been added, one SPF record which basically tells other email servers that your Sonar has been given your permission to send this email, and a DKIM record, which is basically one of the "badges" that the SPF record can show servers to prove it is legitimate. Not all email servers can read or recognize the DKIM record, but it does help the deliverability of your messages. Just follow our guide here to create the records.
