Pastel Integration

Pastel Integration

The book a flight system is able to export invoice information in a format that can be imported into the Pastel accounting package.

SETUP : Correct Pastel Codes

There are several types of codes that have to exist on one or both systems for the integration to work.

These are:

• Member / student code

Each student (pilot) in the Book A Flight system must have a valid Pastel code that corresponds with a record in Pastel

• Flight codes

For each aircraft in the Book A Flight system there must be a set of corresponding records in Pastel with composite code made up of the single letter 'F' indicating a flight, a single letter (L,N,T,S) indicating the membership type of the pilot (L=Life, N=Normal, T=Temporary and Introductory and S=Social : these come from the members "Membership Type" setting), and a 3 letter code for the aircraft.

eg.
FNKIT  = "Flight" "Normal member rates" "ZA-KIT aircraft"
FTOXV  = "Flight" "Temporary / introductory rates" "ZA-OXV aircraft"

In other words, in Pastel there must be 4 codes for each aircraft, with normal flying rates for each of the various membership types - normal members pay Rx.00 per hour for this aircraft, while temporary members pay a different rate.

• Instruction codes

For each instructor there need to potentially be 8 corresponding codes within Pastel. Again, the system uses a composite code for instructors, comprising the instructors pastel code, together with a single letter indicating the instruction type (D=Dual, S=Solo, A=Abinitio and B=Briefing), together with a single letter C for club/school payment and D for direct payment. Arguably you do not need to create the Pastel codes for direct payment, as there should never be any Rand values passed to Pastel for flight invoice details of this nature.

For example:
MGSC = "Instructor MG (Marc Gammon)"  "Solo flight"  "Club/school payment"
MGDD = "Instructor MG (Marc Gammon)"  "Dual flight"  "Direct payment to the instructor"

• APL - this is the code for Approach and Landing on the club/school runway.

• Other codes

There must be corresponding Pastel codes for any special invoice items that have been created for the system using the "Invoice Items List" screen (accessible to admin logins only)

EXPORT: How to get information out of the booking system

Before you export any information you need to ensure that the system knows the email address that the Pastel export file must be sent to. This is defined under "System Configuration" by specifying a valid entry for the configuration item "EXPORTPASTELTO"

Then you need to click on the toolbar item "Flights". This will present you with a list of all flights that have not been exported yet. You need to tick the box next to the entries you are wanting to export, and then press the button at the bottom of the page "Export to Pastel"

The system will generate an export file for the ticked flights and send it to the configured email address.

IMPORT: How to get information into Pastel

Save the file from your email into a temporary location on your local computer.

On the Pastel menu, select "Process", "Customers" and get to the "Tax Invoice" screen.

On this screen, click on the "Batch" button and select "Import". Then navigate to the file you saved from your email address, and press the "Process" button.