HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 9710 HFS RELEASE
Accounts Payable
A "received date" field has been added to the AP batch screen to allow recording the date the invoice was received. This date is not used for anything other than it is stored for informational purposes. This addition does not involve any serious structural or design changes, but it is wide spread as many processes in IFAS make use of the AP batch file layout. Two batch proof errors can now be configured by the client to determine if the error will be treated as a warning or as a block. The error messages "PEID not encumbered on PO" (OH 311) and "PEID not listed on PO" (OH 347) can both be configured under mask NUUPER. In the Accounts Payable check run job, one of the processes that took the most time was the updating of Open Hold with the check numbers, check date, and 'PD' status. This process has been modified, resulting in shorter run times for AP check printing. In the past, AP check stubs could only be "detail" or "summary by invoice." A new feature allows the stub to be sorted and summarized by invoice, PO number, GL Key, GL Obj, JL Key, JL Obj, secondary reference, and relate-to code. Up to two sort levels may be specified.
The Accounts Payable check run process has been enhanced to handle "multi-ledger" check runs. For clients that have multiple ledgers, with each ledger representing a separate entity, one check run can be performed that encompasses all ledgers. When starting check numbers are being entered during the Accounts Payable check run, the system now validates that the check range does not have any entries in the check register. If checks do exist in the range, the user is notified and the process ends.
Accounts Receivable / Cash Receipts
In order to ensure that during AR and CR posting you don't receive invalid attribute errors, check the following common code to verify the attributes used are valid.
Code category: LCGL
Code value: POSTREF
Assoc. code 1: This value represents the primary reference that will post to the GL on
Lonesome cash entries.
Assoc. code 2: This value represents the secondary reference that will post to the
GL on Lonesome cash entries.
When undoing a batch, all line item and reference text is deleted. If a new batch file is to be created from the deleted records, the text is then written to the new batch file.
Corrected the entry of a deferred charge plan number in the AR batch update screen. The number was leftshifted and a remaining rightshifted '0' would remain. The problem with editing and formatting the number in this field are now handled correctly.
Implemented the "LCGL" "POSTREF" common code. This will result in CRREF, ARREF, and description passed into the primary and secondary reference when posting to GL.
Corrected line item text when the batch is produced from an interface. Text type fields will now show correct data, should be blank.
Corrected the error message for required field information after reprinting a cash receipt.
Corrected summary cash screen so that it will now display the last page of ID's. Last page of Summary Cash information is now displayed before entering the Lonesome Cash screen.
Corrected batch totals in Lonesome Cash when user first enters AR/CR batch entry. Totals are correctly recomputed and displayed when returning to a batch entry from a previous suspend, even if changes have been made using Lonesome Cash, Summary, or another session.
The 'Sort Order' heading now uses the user defined long description or coded items.
Post Date (POST DT) on special forms, now appears in the format MM/DD/YY.
File listing reports are now available for all free form text types(AC,CL,CR,LI,RF,SC). When user requests a page break level greater than 0, a page break is issued at the appropriate sort level and the proper headings are printed at the top of the next page.
Implemented changes to the AR Ad-Hoc area to allow file listings for Calc Assignments, 3rd party billing, and Plan Master information.
Encumbrance
The 9710 software release includes several enhancements allowing better control of the AP disencumbering process:
Disencumbrance Hierarchy - The Disencumbrance hierarchy can now be used with GL and JL ledgers having a different fiscalyear.
Reversing a Full Payment - If a full payment account payable transaction is reversed then re-open the encumbrance.
EN batch Improvements - Show correct batch totals and improve what items are highlighted when an error occurs.
JL side selections in ENIQ - Speed inquiry when user selects by JL Key.
New TG option in ENIQ - New option in ENIQ shows EN balances by account for a given PO.
Improvements to PO Summary Report - Correct the report when one PO has multiple vendors. No longer print unnecessary blank pages. Correctly displays PO's that have been fully paid.
Enhanced PO Status Report - Correctly calculate the "Prior Payments" column no matter when a PO is fully paid.
Direct Update - Shows the correct old/new record while producing the audit report. If the origination date of the PO is changed the origination fiscal year will also be updated.
Browse ENDB Accumulators (ENUTAC) -- Added help to this utility.
Check Original Fiscal Year (ENUTCE) -- Make performance improvements and correct misspelled words in heading of the report.
Check Encumbrance Totals (ENUTCP) -- Speed up this utility.
Default Mapping -- When a PO is closed using POMADE or ENUTD1 default mapping can be used to determine the JL side account.
Rolling EN Balance to Yew Year (ENUTRE) - Added an option to include or exclude JL account when creating budgets. Use the correct JL account. Don't add negative amounts to budget rollover.
JL Postings - Occasionally a JL account number would post incorrectly from PO to EN. This has been corrected.
General Ledger
Inquiries: The 9710 software release includes enhancements and corrections allowing better control and reporting for GL inquiries:
Selection Criteria - Handle selection criteria errors gracefully instead of causing fatal errors that could throw the user out if IFAS.
Standard Reports: The 9710 software release also includes many enhancements and corrections across a wide range of Standard Reports:
Use of select code names in an RDF - The select code names may be used in places of SELECTn in the >SELECTS section of an RDF file.
SYRD uses New RDF Editor - Quad or vi is no longer needed to edit RDF files for standard GL reports. New RDF file has been created to use data entry screens instead of a text editor.
General Ledger Report 02 - Added an option to exclude account that have a zero balance.
Interactive Reports -- When a report is run as an interactive report (GLRESRxxIN) and DAISY was set the report would print on the users printer instead of going to the screen. This has been corrected.
Budget Officer's Summary Report 11 - Budgeted Only account would ignore budgets created at the group level. Problem has been corrected.
Hierarchical Budget Summary Report 12 - Enhanced totaling by allowing the user to define sub-total wordings and control how to handle lines with a value of zero.
Deposit and Withdrawals Report 14 - Corrected reformatting variables to allow variables with numbers. Added an option to put a + or - in front of the beginning balance object codes to control how it is calculated.
Account Dir.'s GL/EN Summary Report 15 - An enhancement was added to optionally suppress detail lines in which all values are zeros. Added an option to print grand totals on a separate page. Increase the size of the sort file so large reports will run. Corrected problem when an invalid Fiscal Year was entered it could cause the program to loop. Allow EN status report to be run on more than just revenue and expense accounts.
Account Director's Report 19 - Increase the size of the sort file so large reports will complete successfully.
File Listings: The 9710 software release also includes several enhancements and corrections to improve File Listings:
Selection Criteria for Default Mapping - The default mapping file listing now allows you enter selection criteria so a subset of the codes can be listed.
Transaction File Listing - Added the ability to sort by Contract Number, Prep ID, Original FY, and/or Transaction Type. Now has the ability to show the additional text if requested.
Journal Entry Batches: Journal Entry batch processing has several enhancements and corrections in the 9710 release:
Journal Entry Screen - Eliminate erroneous messages that reported that totals did not match even when they were fine.
Journal Entry Distribution - Handle Dollar figures that reach into the billions. Offsetting entries will use the Misc. code from the primary entry. Don't check for multiple dates in a batch unless running GLJEDM.
Recurrent JE's - Allow high precision accuracy as an option when distributing RJE's. Allow MIN and MAX at the Object, Key, or Grand total levels no matter what calculation code is being used.
Interest Apportionment Report from RJE's -- Look for the MIN and MAX functions while calculating values for the report.
Direct-Update Screens: Several improvements and fixes to direct-update screens are included in the 9710 release:
GLUP Help - Added help for the DF (Default Mapping) option.
General Information (GLUPGN) - Added validation to the "Date" field on screen five.
Organization Keys (GLUPKY) - Adding, Deleting , and Updating of Fully Qualified Keys will also update the fully qualified tables correctly. Will not allow entries that will duplicate a fully qualified key.
Object Codes (GLUPOB) - Object code deletion will be blocked to ensure that historical data posted to those object code will still appear on reports.
Utilities: The 9710 software release also includes many corrections and improvements for GL Utilities:
Creating Posting Preferences - The maximum amount of posting preferences per sub-system has been increased to 2,500.
Help for GLUTAC - Added help to GLUTAC.
Updating Spread Codes (GLUTASUP) - If the seed value does not exist the create one.
Recompute (GLUTDICP) - Enhanced program to run faster. The program will not update unnecessary group level accumulators.
JE Interfaces (GLUTRIIJ) - Add routine to handle a wider variety signed numeric values coming from other system.
Import/Export GL transactions from one machine to another.
Added utilities to export and import transactions to provide a way to keep multiple IFAS accounts/machines in sync.
Subsystem Interface (GLUTSPSI) - Recovery capabilities now prevent subsystem interface codes from being lost during an update and can optionally be restored from a backup file.
Budgeting: The 9710 software release also includes many corrections and improvements for budget batch processing:
New A (Authorize) Budget Check - In addition to B (block) and W (warn) a new level of budget checking has been added. The new type of A (authorize) will cause an authorization screen to appear if a transaction would cause an over budget condition.
Batch Budgets -- Enhance the error message if trying to update a budget that has been closed. Added a function to create a temporary file of Keys and Objects touched by the budget batch.
Copy Budget From a File - Handles 13 and 14 periods if needed. Handle skip over blank accounts and/or amounts.
Direct Update of Budgets - Improve the way the screen handles large number that may not fit on the screen. Correct the updating of pennies even if pennies are not shown on the screen. Added an optional audit report. Correct concurrent access when an AC type budget version is used. GLBUUP driver can now specify what versions are read-only.
Other: The 9710 release also addresses the following issues:
Pick list of Keys and/or Objects - When accessing a pick list of Keys and/or Object codes while entering data from a sub-system the software has been improved to show only the Keys/Objects to which the user as security access.
Improve Default Mapping - Enhance default mapping to deal with all combinations of GL/JL Keys and/or Object codes.
Updating Transactions and Accumulators - Make updating of accumulators part of the logical transaction when adding records to the GL to decrease the likelihood that they will get out of sync.
INTRA Object can be exempt from Key Object Type requirement - Org. Keys explicitly defining valid object type implicitly allow the INTRA object code unless new common code "GLJEINTRA" is present with a value of "NO" in the short description.
Selection Criteria by Org. Key Description - All reports using standard selection criteria can now select on Org. Key Long and/or Short description.
Selection Criteria/ Security - Correct a bug where GL and JL selection criteria and security could get confused when running transaction level reports/inquiries.
Auto RJE's - Multiple STGL common code for Auto RJE's can be setup up for each ledger as well as @@.
Budget Checking - GL routines have been created to allow subsystems to do a smarter job of budget checking on groups of transactions instead of just one transaction at a time.
Key/Object Start and End Date - Allow user to determine whether to block or warn if a transaction falls outside of a the start and end date by setting the nature of an error defined in IFAS.
Spread Codes -- EDITKEY routine was corrected to handle spread codes and other special key and object cases.
Allow Require JL to be waved until Posting Time - Allow payroll to use default mapping to derive a JL account at posting time. The Require JL option is waved until the posting occurs. This is all controlled by common code.
Allow Spread Code for Payroll Time Cards -- Added the ability for spread codes to be used in payroll timecards.
Ad Hoc Report Writer
One bug was corrected in the 9710 software release of the Ad Hoc report writer:
Help clarified for amount type - Help file was modified to clarify how amount type works.
Calculating Budgets - The program now saves General Information that may be needed for budget calculations.
Increase Save File to 26 Characters - This allows a complete fully qualified file name to be used.
Extra Spaces/Pages - The report would sometimes include extra spaces or page breaks when they weren't wanted. Fixed a problem were the SORT! Option could get confused with post spacing.
Object Type in Item Range Selections - Sometimes the third box of the object type was ignored if the first two boxes were left blank. This has been corrected.
Data Item Numbers in Ascending Order - The data item numbers will always be in ascending order after exiting the Ad-Hoc update program.
Data Item Selection - Characters will always be changed to capitals for all items entered on this screen.
Person/Entity
The system now recognizes which subsystem a user is working in when performing the PE lookup function, and uses the correct address hierarchy when retrieving addresses. The PE lookup screen can now be configured to display the due days and address code. See common code PECD LOOKUP for details.
Various browsing problems have been fixed on the PEUPPE screen.
Purchasing
Purchasing approvals can now be based on the user ID of the person who entered the requisition. When reprinting POs, the encumbrances are now updated by the creation of adjusting transactions instead of "backing out" the old encumbrance and establishing the new encumbrance. Some PO changes (such as vendor ID changes) must still be handled with the old method. The reopen utility (POUTRO) has been modified to open the PO even if the encumbrances are already open.
Stores Inventory
The posting date question used in Stores Inventory was the same question used in Accounts Payable. SI has now been given its own question, which now allows clients to configure different allowable date ranges for posting in SI versus AP. The automatic creation of purchasing requisitions with the mask SIINOP has been modified to calculate the next approval necessary for each PR, and to round quantities ordered to the multiple specified in the "bundle quantity" field on the SIUPIN screen.
Systems
Two dozen enhancements and repairs have been made to the system-level software for the 9710 release. There are five year 2000 enhancements, and three patches to the Use file rewrite from 9705. Six of the changes improve the client/server communication for Insight and Cold Storage (UNIX only).
The remaining system-level modifications include a fix to report headings for 80-column reports, exclusion of control account keys in the account lookup help, and less stringent data entry for seed generation. Also, database handles are preserved more effectively such that databases are not opened and closed more than necessary. Quoted hyphen (-) treatment was fixed in selection criteria.
UNIX only enhancements include the ability to have tailsheets for jobs run in batch mode owned by the user who streamed the job. An sy010 logging error was fixed, and some low-level database retrievals were improved. Safeguards were put into place such that a user can enter non-numeric data in response to a numeric selection criteria prompt.
Nucleus
The major Nucleus changes for the 9710 release are patches to the 9705 use file changes, an enhancement allowing an authorized IFAS DBA user to change another user's IFAS password, and the ability in Nucleus defaults to compare dates. Other miscellaneous changes include improvements in avoiding simultaneous posting of the same batch file, and minor fixes to several Nucleus File Listings. Also are some fixes regarding entry of filenames in user dialog.
Aging information can be produced using Ad-Hoc reporting.
Only two responsible ID's and the Account ID are currently printed.
User should receive a block on any transaction created with an excluded division through nucleus security.