Tales From Tech 2 - Issue: 30

Today, I want to begin a series of issues that describe some of the major new features in Version 9 of PowerChurch Plus. In fact, it's my hope that this will be the beginning of a weekly series lasting for at least a week or two.

This first volume will be an overview describing some of the major changes in Fund Accounting in Version 9. The emphasis will be on issues that users upgrading from a prior version will need to keep in mind. Some of the following are extremely important because there are a few changes that will require users to adjust how they do and think about some things.

Anyway, thinking about whether you can really carry moonbeams home in a jar reminded me of that old saying: If a chicken in every pot is good for the goose and good for the gander, why do the chickens have to suffer so much?

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Some of the reports in Fund Accounting have new names. The Ledger Report is now called the Journal Report, the Cash Flow is now called the Check Register by Fund report and the Functional Statement (sub-accounts) report is now simply called the Sub-account Report.

We made these name changes because we wanted to cause you as much grief and confusion as we possibly could.

No, I'm just kidding. We actually changed some of the report names in order to be more in line with correct accounting terminology. For example, there is a standard accounting report called the Cash Flow and the report we used to call Cash Flow was not a real Cash Flow, so we renamed our Cash Flow because you don't want to call something a Cash Flow report if it's not really a Cash Flow report because the real Cash Flow report might get jealous.

POST TO CURRENT/POST TO PRIOR

Before Version 9, it was only possible to post to the current Accounting Month or one month prior.

In Version 9, it is not possible to post to a month after it's been closed, but YOU CAN KEEP UP TO 12 MONTHS OPEN AND POST TO ANY OF THEM WITHOUT HAVING TO CLOSE MONTHS!

Yea!

SAY IT AGAIN

Just in case you are sleeping as you read this, I want to emphasize something from the last section, so let's listen while the choir sings:

Once a month is closed, you can't post to it.
Once a month is closed, you can't post to it.
Once a month is closed, you can't post to it.
But you can have up to twelve months open
and post to any of them.

THIS YEAR, LAST YEAR AND THE ONE BEFORE

One of the biggest changes in Version 9 is that you can now maintain multiple Accounting Years in Fund Accounting. Gone are the "I just closed the year and now I can't run an Account Activity report for last year" days.

Yea! (And since you can have as many years of accounting data as you want to keep, there is no such thing as "closing the accounting year" any more. Now you just close months. Double yea!)

By the way, if you are upgrading to Version 9 from a prior release, we would recommend that you install the upgrade and convert your data before the end of your accounting year so you can take advantage of this new multiple accounting year doohickey. In other words, don't leave Version 9 on the shelf, close the accounting year and then upgrade. Instead, upgrade and then forget all about "closing the accounting year."

Oh, here's a neat little tidbit I wanted to mention since we're on the subject of months and years. Version 9 has done away with the incomprehensible Accounting Month stuff. Goodbye 0404. (Gee, is that accounting year 2004, month 04 or the fourth month of the 2004 accounting year? I can never tell.) Anyway, the Accounting Month is now going to be the calendar month (you know, January, February, March, etc.) and then the year. Don't worry, though. You can specify what the first month is for your year, so you can still be on a fiscal year if you want. We didn't take that away.

SAY IT AGAIN

Okay, there was something important in that last section and I want to say it again, so click your heels together three times and say it with me:

There's no such thing as closing the accounting year any more.
There's no such thing as closing the accounting year any more.
There's no such thing as closing the accounting year any more.

HERE'S 50 DOLLARS FOR THE "SAVE THE CHICKENS" FUND

It is now easy to take care of restricted monies in the program. There will be a lot more (and I do mean a LOT more) about this in the next volume of Tales From Tech 2.

MULTIPLE EQUITY ACCOUNTS

Once upon a time, in a land called PowerChurch Plus Version 8.5 or prior (what a strange name for a land), you could only include two detail accounts in the balance (or equity) section of your chart of accounts. There was the fund balance account and the excess income/expense account. Now you can use the entire 3000 number range. (That's 3000 to 3999 for you mathematicians.)

Since you can now maintain multiple equity accounts, you will be able to specify which equity account each of your income, expense and transfer accounts close to.

NO EXCESS INCOME/EXPENSE ACCOUNT ANY MORE

There is no excess income/expense account anymore. Basically, it's just not needed any more. Think of it as the PowerChurch Plus appendix that has now been surgically removed.

NO MODIFYING YEAR START BALANCES ANY MORE

In Version 8.5 and prior, you can open the Maintain Chart of Accounts screen in Fund Accounting and change the year start balances on any of your asset, liability or balance accounts at any time.

This was a bad thing because someone could change a start balance and no one would know, so just like the excess income/expense account, this option has been removed. (Besides, since Version 9 will let you keep as many years of accounting data as you want, changing a year start balance could invalidate years and years of reports and we just can't let that happen now, can we?)

If you have already set up Accounting and you add a new account, you can post an entry to it if you want to put in a balance. If you've never used Accounting, you can enter your accounts and their beginning balances when you go through the new Accounting Setup Assistant, but once the beginning balances are entered or moved over from your prior version of PowerChurch Plus, you cannot change the year start balance.

WHERE DID THE "REBALANCE" OPTION GO?

Before Version 9, there were two separate files that held posted Fund Accounting information for your current year. One of these files contained totals and the other had all the transaction detail.

Rarely, these two files would get out of sync and you'd end up with numbers on different reports not matching, so a utility called "rebalance" was included in the software that you could use to make the balances match.

In Version 9, there's just a file for details and the program calculates totals every time they are needed for a report, so these kinds of problems can't happen any more.

That's why we took away the "rebalance" option in Fund Accounting. It wasn't that we were trying to be mean, it's just that we made things work better and now there's no reason to include a fix for something that can't be broken.

The moral of this story is that once in a while, we actually do take something away in an upgrade, but it's because we are making the program better.

THE CHECK REGISTER AND RECONCILE BANK ACCOUNTS SCREENS HAVE JOINED FORCES

The Check Register and Reconcile Bank Accounts screens are now consolidated on a single screen, so don't freak out when you don't see Maintain Check Register under the Fund Accounting menu in Version 9.

Now when you want to see your checks, deposits or reconcile your accounts, just click on Reconcile Bank Accounts.

There are a few other changes to the Fund Accounting menu, but I've rambled on long enough for today, so I'll detail some of these other changes in Volume 32.

PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

For those of you who have already purchased Version 9, I wanted to let you know that we have discovered a couple of minor issues since its original release. These problems have been fixed and a Maintenance Release has been made available on our web site at http://www.powerchurch.com/mr/. Please make sure to download and install this Maintenance Release at your earliest convenience.

By the way, if you have an active Internet connection, you can easily get to the Maintenance Release page by going to the Help menu in Version 9 and clicking on "Download Maintenance Release." Isn't that cool?

Well, that's it for today's issue.