2007 Users Conference

This year’s user conference focused on User-Centric Software, A New Vista. It was held August 12–14 th at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Covington, Kentucky.

Designs based around the user’s needs were emphasized. User-centric designs provide better solutions. They draw information from users on what they need and like. The design continues to be refined to incorporate those improvements.

Technology also plays a roll in the design process. As new technology becomes available that would improve upon the user-centric design, it is incorporated into the solution. However, it must be done in an orderly fashion. It should not intrude on the user-centric design in-place to the point of being disruptive. Don Frey spoke of new technologies that compliment Frey applications. These included Solid State Disks, fingerprint security, and wireless networks.

The Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system was discussed and what impact it will have on how we do things.

Sessions were held on all Frey software applications. These sessions described new extensions and enhancements. Open discussions were held to stimulate Thinking Out-of-the-Box about how to improve our software tools.

Our evening event this year was held at the Cincinnati Historical Society’s Museum. It is one of the largest and most significant urban history museums in the country.

BUCS Reviewed in AICPA's Journal of Accountancy

BUCS was recently reviewed, along with several other products, in the July 2007 issue of the Journal of Accountancy. This journal is the official publication of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. We are very pleased that we are recognized as being a serious player in our field. A copy of the article can be viewed and downloaded at this site.

http://www.aicpa.org/PUBS/JOFA/jul2007/jones.htm

BUCS 10.1 Released, Lots of New Capabilities

The new release of BUCS is now being shipped to all clients who have a support agreement. Below are a few highlights:

Journal Entry: You can now stop the user from creating a journal entry when the funds are out of balance. Images can now be attached to a journal entry.

Reminders have new frequency options of semi-annual, quarterly, and bi-weekly. The yearly frequency has been renamed to annually. Miscellaneous type reminders have also been added.

Fund Control: A checking account search has been added for the checking account field. Funds now have the ability to have notes created for them. The fund notes can be set up to have follow-up alerts. You also have the ability to attach Microsoft Word ® documents and scanned images to the fund notes.

Check Print: A new laser check format option has been added to the system.

Invoice Processing: Invoices now have the ability to have a “journal entry note” assigned to them. This note can be printed on the invoice report and paid invoice report and posting journal. It can also be displayed when viewing the source document for the invoice.

Bank Reconciliation: The Check Report can now be exported to Microsoft Excel ®. In Check Reconciliation, you now have the ability to drill down to the source document to view the journal entries for Bank Charges, Interest, and Reconciliation Adjustments.

Fixed Assets: Depreciation history has been added.

Backup/Restore: New options will allow the user to quickly backup BUCS data or programs to a user specified directory. Included is an option that will allow the system to automatically make a backup of the BUCS data before running critical processes.

almost four dozen features and improvements are in the update underscoring Frey & Company’s commitment to providing you the finest software available.

Tips From Your Support Staff

By Adam Best

BUCS: In BUCS 10.1, there is a new check format available called “Top of Form”. The new format would be in the form of stub, stub, check. To use this, you would need to purchase new checks from Hillsborough Printery, who has this design that conforms to our check layout. To change the check stub options, go to System Controls and click on the A/P tab. The fifth option down is to print a second copy of the laser stub. Normally, the “Bottom of Form” is already checked. This allows the check stub to print on the bottom of the form. Check the option for “Top of Form” to use the new format.

CHIPS: To reprint check stubs in CHIPS go to employee maintenance and click on the history tab. Pick an item from the list and double click on the check information. This will bring up all the paycheck information. On the lower right hand side, there is a button to reprint check stubs.

CUBIC: To see a shut off date when viewing bill/pay history, go to System Controls and click on the control tab. In the lower right hand corner, fill in the information for shut off days. When viewing bills in CUBIC under the customer bill pay history details screen, the shut off date appears on the upper right side.

By Dean Eldridge

BUCS: For users that have the Data Dictionary Module along with the Budget Planning Module, an analysis report is available for comparing prior year budgets vs. actual. Go to General Ledger-Budget Planning-Prior Budget Analysis and key in the number of years to analyze (the number available depends on how many prior period report files are archived in your system). Select account types and the range of accounts to include. This will generate a worksheet in Excel that will allow the user to analyze each year’s budget vs. actual in preparation for creating a budget for the new year.

CHIPS: In CHIPS 10, the ability to re-generate Direct Deposit and Pre-note files was made available.  If you go to File-Utilities-Direct Deposit Archive, all previous Direct Deposit and Pre-note files (since the installation of CHIPS 10.0) will be listed. This will allow you to recreate the file for the bank or the report if you have either lost it, over-written it, or if the bank needs it to be resent. Prior to this option, the data would have needed to be restored if the file needed to be re-generated.

CUBIC: If the interface to BUCS is performed, and there are postings on the interface that you do not understand (such as postings with no g/l account associated due to a g/l code probably being set up incorrectly), a detail report can be generated. Go to File-Utilities-Interface Detail Report key in the Control Number for the Interface in question (this control number is in the top right-hand corner of the interface report). The report that prints will include customer book/account and amounts posted (debit/credit) for each g/l account.

By Mike Emmerich

BUCS: Encumbrance/Purchase Orders – Most government entities need a unique Purchase Order number for each P.O. issued. By default, BUCS will allow a duplicate P.O. # to be used, as long as the vendor number with each P.O. is unique. With BUCS 10.1, there is an option to force a unique P.O. # for each encumbrance/P.O. To implement this, click on General Ledger - System Controls – Edit – click on “Payables” tab and un-check the box for the option that says “Allow Duplicate PO/Encumbrance Numbers”.

CHIPS: Employee Change Log – The program was modified to only print information that has actually changed. It will show each field that changed with “Before” and “After” changes. This transaction report is good to save for the auditors since it shows when employee raises were implemented along with any other changes. To implement this, click on General – System Controls – Edit – click on the Controls tab, then click on and put a check mark in the “Employee Change Log” field. If you click on the field underneath “Page Break on Change”, it will give you a separate page for each employee.

CUBIC: Meter change-outs: Users of handheld devices that are using the work order program for meter change-outs, need to check the option in system controls to update the service record with the new meter information immediately upon completion of the work order. This will enable the handheld units to have the correct meter information the next time the Handheld Download program is run. To implement this, click on General – System Controls – Edit – “Work Orders” tab and check the box for the option that says “Automatically Update Service”.

By John Milleck

BUCS: In BUCS 10.1, the backup/restore menu items have been replaced with new options. The new options allow the user to enter in a specified directory to backup BUCS data and/or programs. The user can setup defaults for these backups in System Controls under the Preferences tab. There are also other default options in System Controls that allows the user to do automatic backups before checks are printed, accounts payable ACH transactions are posted, and period/year end reset is performed by keying in the path and checking the Process Automatic Backups box. This option should not replace the nightly backups performed or the backups to other recordable media.

CHIPS: The user can have a message appear when processing payroll if a certain percentage of amount or hours keyed in is higher or lower than the average for every employee. This option can be turned on in System Controls under the preference tab. When this option is turned on, key in the percentage for the payroll amount and hours to be tested when processing payroll. If a bi-weekly employee is always getting paid 80 hours as an average, when the user is processing payroll and accidentally keys in an extra zero a message will appear stating total hours exceeds the employee’s standard hours by more than the percentage allowed. You can choose to continue or go back to fix the mistake that was made.

CUBIC: You can add a graph to the new statement bills comparing consumption for the past two years. This option is only for the new statement bill format, which is printed on 8 ½ x 11 paper. The new statement bill form can be turned on in the System Controls under the preferences tab. To turn on the new statement usage graph option for each service CUBIC offers, go to System Controls under the features tab and click on each service information that applies. Inside the service information screen you will find the print graph option under the new statement usage graph options. The user has the option to print up to three graphs on the new statement bill meaning three different services can be shown on the bill with their own consumption graphs.