ShoWorks Help Articles

Premium amounts seem incorrect or do not appear on checks and/or other reports

SYMPTOM

Premium amounts seem incorrect or do not appear on checks and/or other reports

CAUSE

• CAUSE 1: The Points & Premiums menu may need refreshing (you should always "Refresh" premiums prior to writing checks or viewing reports for premium amounts).
• CAUSE 2: You created a report and displayed incorrect fields.
• CAUSE 3: (for checks only) You have created more than one check for a given exhibitor where one has information prior to a premium calculation.
• CAUSE 4: (for checks only) You have not yet created a check given a premium calculation or have changed data since you have written a check for this exhibitor.
• CAUSE 5: (most common cause) Your Points & Premiums may be set up incorrectly.

RESOLUTION

CAUSE 1: The Points and Premiums menu should be "Refreshed" after making changes.  Click the "Refresh" button before closing the Points & Premiums menu if you have made any changes.

CAUSE 2: When creating custom reports using the "Entries" in step 1 of the report wizard, make sure to include the fields "Total Premiums" and "Entry Number". If the value seems incorrect, review the "Total Premiums" value in the "Info" tab of the actual entry in the Entries menu.  If this value does not appear correct, then see Cause 1 above, or Cause 5 below.

CAUSE 3: When viewing/printing checks, the premium may have already been included in a prior check for this exhibitor.  Make sure to review all checks to locate any possible prior recorded transaction of this premium.  If there is another check for this exhibitor and you wish to combine the checks, delete both checks and use the "write checks" feature to rewrite a single check for the balance of this exhibitor. If the value seems incorrect, review the "Total Premiums" value in the "Info" tab of the actual entry in the Entries menu.  If this value does not appear correct, then see cause 1 and 2 above.

CAUSE 4: Checks do not change once they are written (regardless of printing).  Therefore after any premium and/or judging activity has occurred, once must only then write checks.  If a check has already been written before premium calculations performed (and/or more placing activity has occurred), you may delete the check and allow it to be re-written using the "write checks" feature.  If the value seems incorrect, review the "Total Premiums" value in the "Info" tab of the actual entry in the Entries menu.  If this value does not appear correct, then see cause 1 and 2 above.

CAUSE 5: Make sure that your Points & Premiums are set up correctly.  This is the most common mistake because one thinks that a premium record is set up for a particular scenario that will match the results of the placing of an entry, when in fact it does not.  There are two types of premium configurations - A) Straight Premiums and B) Sliding Scale Premiums

A) Straight Premium Mistakes:

Example of incorrect Straight Premium:
Division=My Division, Class=<all Classes>, Breed=My Breed, Place=2, Premium=$5.00
In the above example, an entry having:
Division=My Division, Class=My Class, Breed (left blank), Place=2
will not receive a premium because it does not match having a Breed value of "My Breed".

Another Example of incorrect Straight Premium:
Division=My Division, Class=<all Classes>, Breed=(left blank), Special Placing=Best of Show, Premium=$10.00
In the above example, an entry having:
Division=My Division, Class=My Class, Breed (left blank), Special Placing=Bes of Show
will not receive a premium because it does not match having the Special Placing value of "Best of Show" (the misspelling of 'Best' the value ‘Best of Show’).

B) Sliding Scale Mistakes:

Example of overlapping class counts in sliding scale schedules:


In the above example, premiums will be overstated for an entry that is in a class having 5 entries because it satisfies all conditions.


In the above example, classes having more than 20 entries will not receive any sliding scale premiums.



Above is a correctly setup sliding scale schedule.



Any entries in the above two classes will not receive any sliding scale premiums because the classes are marked as "Hide Online".



The above entry will not receive any sliding scale premiums because it is not "Confirmed to Show".

Another common mistake in Sliding Scale Premiums is failing to understand that these premiums are calculated based on the total number of entries in a given class.  Remember, if you are adding entries, as you add, you are increasing the number of entries in classes, and thus changing the calculation factor (entry count) that premiums are based on.  You should always "Refresh" premiums (button in the Premiums menu) prior to writing checks or viewing premium amounts in reports.