Fundware® Update
July, 2006
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Advanced Fund
Management Solutions
Hi Everyone,
Service Pack 2 has been released. It incorporates a number of fixes, and a nice new edit account
feature.
This month we cover how to use it.
Accounts Payable Inquiry is a useful way to pull info from AP. Learn how to use it by practicing.
Have you ever wondered what the Global Settings menu item is? Wonder no more!
As always, if you have any questions regarding a FundWare® issue, please contact me at
(318) 253-8556, or email me at jgarv@afmss.com
Thanks,
Judy Garver
New Edit Accounts Feature
With Service Pack 2 (SP2) comes a new, and faster, way to edit accounts. Previously, if you
wanted to edit an account (change its name, attributes, etc.) you had to open the chart of accounts.
This loaded the entire chart of accounts, which can result in a noticeable delay if you have a large
number of accounts.
With the new edit feature (found under General Ledger/Accounts/Edit Account), you may select one
or more accounts to edit. The form below shows the feature in use. The "Account" field is where you
key in the account number (or select it using the Account Selector button). You may select,
one at a time, multiple accounts with which you wish to work. Each time you select one, you click on
the "Load Account" button (not shown here), to place them in the grid (two have been loaded into the
grid, as shown below). Then you may edit them.
This new edit account feature can save you considerable time. Install SP2 and try it!
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Global Settings
In one place you can discover some interesting information about your system, and make several
changes that affect how it works. Under General Ledger/Maintenance/Global Settings, you will see the
form shown below. Some of this information may be changes here, and some may not. We'll explain each
field in turn.
The posting window is a seldom used feature because it is limiting. In this example debits and
credits may be made in any module for a period of 45 days after the last "locked" (it used to be
called "closed") period. The locked period is 05/31/2006 (shown near the bottom of the image),
so users may do transactions until a business date of August 14th. If you wish to make transactions
after August 14th, you must "lock" the next period. This feature encourages users to finish a month's
work (July in this case) by the middle of the next month! A setting of zero days turns this off.
The check box for Units/Rates allows you to record units and their unit prices in journal entries.
This can be useful for reporting purposes.
The posting count indicates how may users are posting, from any module, at the moment.
If it gets "stuck" on 1 or another number, Support can help you reset it so that you can perform
certain functions.
The Next Batch number shows you what the next trace report number will be.
The First and Last dates you have posted into the system are shown next.
The ID Type status shows you what ID Types you have in your setup. The last "locked" period is
also
shown. Our ID Type A accounts are used by GL (as opposed to Project Grant).
Finally, the year end roll option is shown. In this example, commitments and budget dollars will
not roll into next year.
Check out your Global Settings. You may find it enlightening, and you may get some ideas!
Ask Judy...
Q I would like to export Advanced Financial Reporting reports in Excel
format, but it doesn't seem to be available.
Wes
A The AFR report writer can export in comma delimited format. This format
places commas between information that is in the report columns. The output isn't pretty, but Excel
loves that format. It will use the commas to help it place the information in separate Excel columns.
The report will have a name like 96XSAMP1, where 96 is the division number, and SAMP1 is the report name. Column titles are lost in this process and must be added.
Q I would like to see all of my accounts, with last year's actuals,
this year's year to date, along with this year's budget. Does such a report exist?
Dave
A The Working Trial Balance report (under Report Manager/GL/Financial
Statements) will show you what you want. It also has blank columns into which you may hand write
adjusting entries to be made, along with a column for hand written comments.
Accounts Payable Inquiry
One way to quickly find information in Accounts Payable is to use the Inquiry feature. If you
wished to find all of the invoices in the system for the vendor OfficeMate, this would be a quick way
to do it
Go to Accounts Payable/Inquiry. The form below will open. Select the category "Obligations".
You will need to use two data items to filter out invoices with a certain vendor name. We used
"Stage #" and then a range of 30 to 30 to pull invoices. Then, we selected the "Vendor Name" data
item with a range of "OfficeMate to OfficeMate". Both data items are "Include", which means items
in the range will appear.
Experiment with the data items that are offered and see how useful inquiry can be. Don't forget
to try other categories, too!
Did You Know...?
Accounts Receivable/Cash Receipts. You may add multiple invoices and
record multiple cash receipts as a batch. That way you can review and edit them before posting them
all at once as a batch.
Payroll.If you have a piece of information on your employee records
that might require updating on many employees, you may want to use the Maintain Employee Data Items
feature (under Payroll/Maintenance/Employee Data Items). For example, you could increase the hourly
rate of full time employees in the admin department by five percent, all at once. There are lots of
other options, as well.
Project Grant. The Project Grant module is designed to track activities
that require only revenue and expense accounts. This typically applies to grants, projects,
or programs. (Their assets and liabilities are tracked in GL). It also has a special data item
(.YEAR END) that can be attached to accounts, and their year end can be added. This accommodates
reporting activities with multiple year end dates out of Report Manager. In addition, PG can also be
set to roll budgets forward at year end.
Links to Other FundWare® Sources
There are several sources of information on the internet that can make your Fund-Ware®
experience more productive and effective. Check out the following sites:
This is Fundware's home page. On it you will find the latest in file fixes and program updates.
In addition, you may search the knowledge base for answers to your support questions.
Check out my site for a complete listing of the products and services I offer.
This site offers a number of products that add an extra measure of functionality to FundWare®.
One of these products may make your life a lot easier.
This site offers a number of free downloads that will help you get more out of Fund-Ware®.
