Tales From Tech 2 - Issue: 32

Finally, a volume about something other than donor restrictions!

Today, I wanted to continue my series on Version 9 by describing some of the changes to the Fund Accounting menu that attentive upgraders may have noticed.

Anyway, thinking about tuna flavored ice cream reminded me of that age-old question: If the early bird catches the worm and birds of a feather flock together, what does a flock of early birds do when there's just one worm?

Version 9 includes some major enhancements over previous versions. Many of these new features are in Fund Accounting. Because of these changes, there have been some modifications to the menu. If you upgraded to Version 9, but you didn't use Fund Accounting in your prior version, then you probably won't even notice these changes. If you did use Fund Accounting in a prior version, whether you notice the differences might depend on whether you actually looked at the menu when you used it. (There may be other possibilities, like screen resolution, mental alertness and visual acuity, but I think I've made my point.)

Anyway, there are some options from prior versions that don't appear in the menu any longer, but don't worry, the only thing we took away was a fix for something that can't get broken any more. Like a flock of wild chickens, the other items have migrated to other places.

There are also several new menu items that I want to describe, but let me stop rambling and get to the details.

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

The Maintain Check Register screen is gone. Okay, I'm kidding. It isn't really gone. It's now part of the Reconcile Bank Accounts screen. As described in Volume 30 of Tales From Tech 2, the Check Register and Reconcile screens have been combined under Reconcile Bank Accounts, so don't panic, your check register isn't gone.

The Copy Model Chart of Accounts option is gone. Okay, I'm kidding again. It's not really gone. The option to copy the accounts in an existing Accounting Fund to a new Accounting Fund has been moved. You'll probably never guess where, though. Okay, I'll tell you. It's been moved to the Attendance module. Okay, I'm joking again. (Gee, I just can't stop myself.) The Copy Model Chart of Accounts option is now integrated into the Maintain List of Accounting Funds screen since the only time you can copy accounts from one fund to another is when you're creating a new fund. By the way, this function is actually more powerful in Version 9 than in prior versions because you can pick and choose the accounts to copy to the new fund. Before Version 9, you had to copy all the accounts or pick one specific account number range.

The Import Contributions Data menu option is gone. In this case, I'm not actually lying. The option does not appear in the menu any more and that's the truth. The function is still there, however, so even though I'm telling the truth, I'm also lying. Importing contributions data is done through the Import Accounting Transactions option, so you'll use this option regardless of what kind of transactions you are importing.

GONE AND FORGOTTEN

There is one option in Fund Accounting that was available in prior versions that is no longer available. It hasn't been consolidated with another option and it hasn't been moved to another place. It has been removed. Like plucking a flea from Frou-Frou's fur, it has been extracted, removed, purged, eradicated. That option is the Rebalance Books option and I described why this option is gone in Volume 30 of Tales From Tech 2.

THE NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT

The wording on some of the menu options has changed.

CLOSE END OF PERIOD / CLOSE MONTH

Prior to Version 9, there was a menu option labeled "Close End of Period." In Version 9, it is called "Close Month" The reason is simple, but unfortunately, I don't know what it is.

Okay, I'm joking. The reason is that prior to Version 9, you actually had to close the Accounting Year after closing months 1 through 12. In Version 9, you only close months. There is no such thing as closing the year any more, so instead of saying "close end of period" to cover closing the month or year, now we just say "close month" because closing June is no different than closing December (or whatever the last month of your year is) as far as Fund Accounting is concerned.

COPY THIS YEAR'S BUDGET TO NEXT YEAR / COPY BUDGET TO NEXT YEAR

The wording for the option to copy a budget to another year has also changed and the reason is that since you can now have multiple years of data in Fund Accounting, you could be copying any budget to your following year. It doesn't have to be your current year's budget.

EXPORT DATA TO SPREADSHEET / EXPORT ACCOUNTING DATA

This option reads a little differently now because the functionality has been improved.

Before Version 9, when you exported data from Fund Accounting, the program created a comma delimited text file which you could import into a spreadsheet program such as Excel.

Now you can create an output file in a variety of different formats (not just comma delimited), so you are able to import the data into other programs, not just a spreadsheet program.

SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE, SOMETHING NEW ON THE MENU, TOO

In addition to the changes on some of the Fund Accounting menu options, there are some new options that I want to tell you a little about.

REPEATING TRANSACTIONS

Users have been bugging us... err... I mean asking us for a while to add a repeating transaction option in Fund Accounting. Well, we did.

DONOR RESTRICTIONS

Version 9 now includes a menu option you can use to set up your various donor restrictions. Donor restrictions were described in great and horrible detail in the three issues making up Volume 31 of Tales From Tech 2, which you may still be reading.

VIEW POSTED TRANSACTIONS

We have added a new screen in Fund Accounting which may very well be the greatest thing since sliced cottage cheese.

The screen is called the View Posted Transactions screen and it displays a list of transactions that have been posted in Fund Accounting. You can filter this list to show only the entries for a particular month, a specific date or date range or just the entries with a specific reference.

In fact, not only can you use this screen to look at entries posted in Fund Accounting, but if you buy Version 9 right now, we'll throw in an option to actually reverse accounting entries RIGHT FROM THIS SCREEN!

Yes, you heard it right, folks. You can reverse posted Fund Accounting entries by simply selecting the entry and clicking the reverse button. Gone are the days of manually entering all the reversing debits and credits as a transaction. Now the program will do it for you!

Note: If you reverse an entry in Fund Accounting using the View Posted Transactions screen and the entry came from another module, it will not have any effect on the module the entry originally came from. For example, if the entry was posted from Payroll, reversing it in Fund Accounting will not change anything in Payroll, it will only affect Fund Accounting.

CHANGE WORKING MONTH

The working month is simply the month the program assumes when you are entering transactions or running reports in Fund Accounting. It is not necessarily the first open month or the only month you can post transactions to.

Changing the working month doesn't actually close a month or change the months that you can post to.

DELETE OLD DATA

In Fund Accounting in Version 9, you can keep as many years of data as you want, but there may come a point when you decide that you want to get rid of some of the old information. That is why there is now a delete old data option in Fund Accounting, just like there is in Payroll, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Contributions.

AUDIT ACCOUNT BALANCES

The audit account balances option is an auditing tool which you can use to verify that the account balances have not been corrupted or changed from outside of PowerChurch Plus.

Just don't ask us how we do it because we can't tell you. All we can say that it involves a group of spy chickens that have been specially selected because of their unique ability to blend in with their surroundings, so just be careful what you say and do because our spy chickens could be watching you!

VIEW ACCOUNTING AUDIT LOG

Version 9 now logs some of the functions performed in Fund Accounting. Viewing this log allows you to find out who did what and when they did it. You can even print out this information on a report, so when Ethel tells you she didn't close the month, but the report says she did, you'll be able to roll up the report and swat her on the nose with it for telling a fib.

Okay, okay. Don't call the SPCE (The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ethels). I'm not really recommending that you abuse Ethel.

By the way, there's an audit log available in the Contributions module, too. Isn't that nifty, Bob?

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