New Update Available - Version 6.05.17.615

A new update is available for SchoolBooks and Tracks Desktop.

We recommend you go to Help / Get Updates to download this update especially if you have a WebStore and have started selling your item that can move students to Price Level B (Ex: ASB Card, Gold Gold, Student Body Card, etc.) to make sure they are all set to the correct Price Level.

Update Release Notes Version 6.05.17.615 - August 5, 2009

Tracks

1. Fixed an issue in Student Update where in a small number of instances, the birth date did not import correctly.
2. Fixed an issue with WebStore integration where in some circumstances when a student purchased a Student Body Card on the WebStore, the Student was not subsequently changed to Price Level B on the WebStore. To make sure all data is correct, this update also converts all students who have purchased the "Price Level B" item after May 15, 2009 to Price Level B.

No changes were made to SchoolBooks.

Happy new school year!

Enhancements to Improve Your Audits: Feedback Needed

I’m reviewing Tracks and SchoolBooks enhancement requests that pertain to audits. These are either requests you’ve made because your auditor asked for them or things you think would help you have an easier time with the whole audit process. We get a lot of compliments on our SchoolBooks Audit Selection Report, but I think we could do more. I would appreciate your feedback: Are your auditors requesting different types of information than they were a couple years ago? Are there any reports that need one more function added to be just perfect for you and them? Is there something else we could give you that would make your audit go more smoothly?

I’m listing the current enhancement requests that contain the word “audit” so you can comment and tell me whether these are important to you or if you have something completely new to add. Whatever we discover together, I’ll report it back here.

SchoolBooks:

• Audit Selection Report – Add option to print all deposits over X amount. Add option to print all receipts over X amount.
• Add option to summarize accounts on the Balance Sheet. She got an exception on her audit because they saw sub-accounts on her Balance Sheet and didn’t like that some of them had negative balances.
• Master Audit Report – Needs to show changes and additions to User Codes.
• New audit report to show changes to master files – like Vendor Maintenance and GL Account Maintenance.
• New consolidated report - Vendor Check History for 1099 vendors only across all schools.
• New consolidated report - Consolidated Category Report across all schools.

Tracks:

• Master Audit Report – display all WebStore sales under ” WebStore” User Code.
• Importing transactions. When using Import Manager, auditors want to see a list of imported sales listed by receipt number.
• Add option to Sales by Receipt Report – allow for grouping/selection by Payment Type (so she can get a separate list of all credit card sales).

It's that time of year! Do you know where your data is?

What happens if you walk into work tomorrow morning and your computer has been stolen? For the sake of argument, let’s assume that any storage devices like floppy discs or flash drives within 5 feet of your computer are also gone – because the thieves took those too! Let’s also presume that you get a replacement computer real fast and you (or someone) reinstalls your Blue Bear software pretty quickly. Now here’s the fun question? Where is your Blue Bear data?

You who are long time Blue Bear customers will recognize the question. You know that about this time every year, I start harping about backing up every day and having each user take responsibility for his/her own backup. Yep, I’m going to remind you again! So I have to ask - when is the last time you made a backup? Is yesterday’s backup on that flash drive that you left in the computer – it was also stolen with the computer, right? Or did you backup onto your own hard drive?

Or maybe you depend on your network IT folks for your backups and your backup is on a network drive? . How about giving IT a call? Ask them if you can get your data from last Thursday. See what they say. Maybe, it’s a “Sure, no problem.” If so, great. If it’s not, now it a great time to change the procedure.

I’ve been in this business for 20 years. Every single year at least one or two users get in a position where (a) their computer is gone or the network drive crashed, and (b) they don’t have a backup. They sometimes end up re-entering months of data. They cry – literally. It’s tragic and extremely un-fun. Don’t let this be you! Backup frequently and know where your data is! It’s much like being a responsible parent – only not as expensive!

Helpful hints:

• Change the name of your backup file every day. When the program suggests a default of C:\Program Files\Blue Bear\MySchool_TR.ZIP change it to “My School_TR_072809.ZIP” or a fie name with the date in it. That way, you won’t overwrite previous files.


• If you must backup to your own hard drive (not recommended), at least make a separate backup to a different source at least once a week. That way, if you computer gets stolen or crashes, there is hope for data recovery.


• If you have ‘casual’ backup habits (you know who you are!), get religion and change your ways. Making a daily backup is the best, cheapest insurance you can have.

Paying Vendors – ACH vs Check? Positive Pay?

We’ve have a couple software enhancement requests concerning payables to Vendors and sending files to your bank. I’d love to get some feedback on these topics. Do you love these ideas? Do you hate them? What?

1. Automated Clearing House (ACH) is an electronic network for financial transactions. It means you could pay a Vendor with an ACH transfer right from your bank directly to their bank – with no check! We’ve had a couple requests for this and I’m wondering how many schools might actually allow this. As you can imagine, you’d need VERY tight security and a whole bunch of approval procedures in place within the software in order to send a file to the bank. But - it would save trees, save money spent on postage, save time spent in preparing checks, stuffing envelopes, etc.

2. Positive Pay is an anti-fraud service offered by most every US commercial bank. Here’s how it works: Every time you print a batch of checks, your software (like SchoolBooks) automatically sends a file with all the check numbers and amounts to your bank. That way, your bank knows the amount of every check you’ve issued and can decline a check with an altered amount.

You know that we are constantly evaluating new features which may increase the functionality of our software. I’ll be sharing about more of these in this blog going forward – because this is a great place for Blue Bear users to share their thoughts – with me and everyone else. So what do you think about these two? Are they things you may want in a year or 3 years? Or never? Or what? Let me know!

Deal with Stale-Dated Checks Now!

You sent that vendor a check last fall, but he still hasn’t cashed it. And not just one! You’ve got checks showing up on your Bank Reconciliation Report as “outstanding” since last October and you've been putting off dealing with them. But I suggest that now's the time. Why? One reason: Stale-dated checks are often an indication of other bookkeeping problems – and auditors hate them. I know you’re busy – dealing with other year end issues, but now’s a great time to handle them – even if they haven’t hit that magic “void if not cashed by” date.

How old is a stale-dated check? Your district or your auditor likely has guidelines. Check with them. Is it 6 months, a year? And they probably have recommended procedures too – about how to void the check, whether to reissue another check, etc.

What if you do nothing and let them sit? Watch out that you don’t get dinged in an audit. If you have stale-dated checks on your bank reconciliation report at year end, chances are you’re going to get written up for it. Do yourself a favor and get them handled now.

Best bet? Call that vendor and ask “Why haven’t you cashed this?” Sure, it’s time consuming, but it’s the easiest way to determine what to do. Chances are they never got it – maybe they moved, maybe it got lost. But maybe there’s a problem with it that you never heard about because they never let you know. It’s a lot easier to decide how to handle each individual check if you have a little information.

And – whatever you do - don’t just void the check and drop the issue there. That money doesn’t belong in that account. The GL Account for that club or class will now be artificially higher than it should be and that’s not a good thing.

Take the time and clean up stale-dated checks now – before they bite you!

New Update Available - Version 6.05.15.608

A new update is available for SchoolBooks and Tracks Desktop. We recommend you go to Help / Get Updates to download this update if:

• You are a Client/Server district.
• You use Course Fees in Tracks.

For more detailed information about this release, check out the Release Notes in SchoolBooks or Tracks. Did you know you can see Release Notes for a version you haven't downloaded yet? Go to Help, Get Updates, and click on the "Features" button. This will show you the release notes for the version available to download. If you came to this post through the link in the notification email sent out today, please scroll down for older posts with helpful tips and information!

Hope you are all having a great summer!

Is it Year End already?

Wow! How did it get to be the end of the year already? I never understand how this happens so fast. But it’s true – it’s the end of the year and I’ll bet you’re starting to think about closing out this year in your software and starting up a new one, right?

SchoolBooks users: Did you stop working because it’s year end? Well, you don’t have to! You can enter July transactions without closing your year – no problem! If you enter a date AFTER June 30, the program will display a message “The Date is after the Current Fiscal Year ending date of 06/30/2009. Do you want to Proceed?” Click “Yes” and go ahead. When you are eventually ready to close out your year, these transactions will be just fine because the program will only close out transactions on or before June 30. And - check out the Help files – Chapter 8 Year End Processing – for a helpful checklist!

Tracks users: We’ve got a brand new Dr. Download Help Video that you've got to see! It's about time to remove those graduating seniors and pull in those new freshmen, right? Use this link - http://www.activeeducate.com/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=11732 – and get a walk through of the whole process to get your system all set up for a brand new year. It’s all there!

And Summer begins!