Archives for January 2017
Highlights of the January 15, 2017 Update
Posted January 15, 2017 at 3:10 PMThe January 15, 2017 update includes a large number of new features and bug fixes. Highlights include new privacy features in the election system, the ability to obtain assessment pricing from the category type's item, updates to budgeting, and convenience fees when accepting payments in the web portal.
Bank Reconciliation
- Added the reconciliation ID to the top of the reconciliation wizard if resubmitting an existing reconciliation.
- Added the reconciliation ID to the More tab of the transaction detail for payments, checks, and receipts.
Batches
- Removed the artificial DB (deposit batch) and CB (check batch) prefixes from customer and vendor batch ID's.
- Added a Batch ID field to the main batch pages in order to quickly search for a specific batch. If this field is non-empty, all other search filters are ignored.
Budgets
- Changing classes or saving the budget no longer loses the scroll position of the accounts. That makes it easier to work on multiple classes of a single account.
- The height of the budget grid adjusts to fill the browser page.
Calendars
- On the tooltip that appears over an event, sign-ups are now sorted by name.
- On the Links tab of the calendar category detail page, added Default Type and Detail Stage options. These values will populate the Type and Stage fields of new events.
Current Date
- Now logs when a user changes the current date in the user record.
Category Details
- The Date Time detail now uses the time picker used in other parts of Forwardpass.
Elections
- Added a Security tab to the election configuration page.
- On the the Security tab, added a Privacy setting that selects the degree of anonymity for the voting system:
- Open Proxy - The property ID is used as the voter ID. Reports and the vote counting page may contain identifying information about the voter including name and address.
- Anonymous Proxy - A random token is used to generate the voter ID. Reports and the vote counting page will not display the property ID, name, and address of the voter.
- Added a button labeled Reset Voter IDs to the election detail page. If clicked and confirmed, the system assigns new random voter ID's to every property in the category.
- System now logs election calculations and Voter ID generation.
- On the Results tab, expanded the Delivered subheader to read Delivered but Not Opened to be more precise. Also, changed the Opened subheader to Delivered and Opened.
Items
- Now logs changes to item prices.
Letters
- Added a format parameter to the fp_now template tag. By default, the format is set to MMMM yy, dddd. This returns a date in the form, January 1, 2018. However, now you can change the date/time format as desired.
Logs
- Administrators can no longer assign a log type to a category type (customer, property, vendor, etc.). Instead, log types can be assigned to optional categories.
Memberships
- Added an Expiration Stage ID select menu to the Privileges tab of the category type detail. If a stage is selected, any active memberships that have expired will automatically be set to that stage.
Menus
- The Cases menu now sorts and indents subcategories below the parent category.
Packages
- Added an option to the package category page: Number of Days before Expiration. By default, the number of days before a package expires is set to 180.
Signage
- On the slide detail page, now hides color selectors when not used by the background choice.
Transactions
- New bulk updater that allows the user to recode or even change date or amount of multiple transactions in one operation.
- No longer allows a bill or invoice with a negative total amount. The system will instead suggest that the user make a credit memo.
Uploads
- System now defaults to public access for website templates, email templates, and signage.
Website
- Web portal payments can now include an optional convenience fee. The fee can either be a fixed amount or a percentage of the total. The fee is added to the customer's account and the payment is applied to it as well as to the oldest transactions with unpaid balances.
- Changed how reCaptcha support works. The reCaptcha secret is now stored in the website's Key Values. A new function, fp_form_submit is now available. The key is now passed to the function for processing the form.
Bulk Update of Transactions
Posted January 15, 2017 at 3:10 PMThere are number of reasons you might want to bulk update transactions. Perhaps you forgot to change the amount of recurring dues before you ran an assessment against 5000 properties or a clerk has unwittingly been coding bills to the wrong expense account for months. Rather than correct each transaction individually (or fix things with a journal entry), you can run the bulk updater against multiple transactions:
- Go to the Customers (or Vendors) drop-down menu and select Transactions with Customers (or Transactions with Vendors).
- Use the search tools to refine the transactions you wish to update. Be precise about your search.
- From the Other Actions pop-up button, select Tools.
- Click on the Updater tab if it is not already selected.
- In the Where column, enter specific values to refine the current search. If you enter no information in this column, the update will be applied to every transaction in the current search. It is perfectly acceptable to not enter any values if you have been careful about your search terms on the main transactions page.
- Enter a new value into one or more of the fields in the Replace With column.
- Enter your User Password and click the Update Transactions button.
Notes
- You can update more than one attribute at the same time.
- You can only change the dates of statement charges, statement credits, or comments. All other transaction types in the current search will be ignored.
- You can only change the amounts of statement charges or credits. All other transaction types in the current search will be ignored.
- The system will not update the amount of any statement charge that has been paid (either partially or in full).
- It takes longer for the system to update a change to the amount because customer (or vendor balances) must be updated
- Bulk updating an item does not also update the accounts and class of each transaction.
- The system will return an error if you enter a new due date that occurs before a new transaction date.
- If any transaction in the current search occurs before the community lock date, the update will not occur.
- This is a very powerful utility. You can easily overwrite valid data if it is used recklessly or too broadly. There is no Undo capability.