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Highlights of the 2008 version of InnControl

We are working on a project to rationalize function and strip control keys. The goal of the project is to find and repair cases where a logical function key or a strip control key is not available or doesn't do what one would think it should. The project got started because a user called, reporting that a strip key was doing nothing. The InnControl support person worked with the user and found the same thing. When the programmer got involved they discovered that both the user and the support person were pressing a key that did nothing, they were pressing the wrong key. It was the logical key, but the wrong key. That one got fixed on that day. We looked and found several more. We are still looking. Feel free to help us look.

The XFER management tools got a complete makeover. Both the central site and remote site tools (5 on main InnControl menu) take on a whole new look and feel. The central site version yields several sorting and filtering options along with more information on the screen before the print function is required. The remote site version has more information with filtering options. More significant for remote site users are the features which give the user direct access to importing kermit files to the local database and direct access to the kermit function without leaving the tool.

3.	New features have been added to the city ledger line item billing facility. These navigation and filtering tools make selection and maintenance of billing items easier and quicker.

"Auto-return" has been added to the InnControl menu. When a user turns on this feature the menu will deliver the user to the selected function as soon as the numbers keyed yield unambiguous selection. If there is only one item on the current page beginning with the character 1, keying a 1 will go immediately to that function. If there as a 1 and a 10 on the list, 1 requires 1 plus enter, 10 will be selected with they keystrokes 10.

1.	The bank check clearing subsystem has been reworked to provide single entry for multiple banks and accounts. This allows a single menu item to provide access to multiple banks and/or bank accounts.

Highlights of the 2007 version of InnControl

19.	Some benefit service providers require loan numbers on reports of deductions. The payroll subsystem now provides for up to 6 concurrent loans and assigning loan numbers of your choice.

18.	A feature has been added to the payroll subsystem. The calculation of garnishment amounts can be automatically calculated as the time cards are recorded.

17.	A new feature has been added to the printing subsystem. It will allow the selection of a single page or range of pages for printing. Simply run the report to file, escape to the report control display, then choose Print.

16.	Select/Overide the Invoice Funder as you enter project invoices. As you complete each project invoice you will be asked to confirm/set the proper Funder, selecting from the Funders valid for the Project.

15.	Choose many revenue days to print at once. Print a Diary/General Office Report for as many days as you like with a single launch.

14.

Thin Client support for InnControl! A customer inquiry about connecting to a Linux InnControl server from a Linux X Windows desktop along with an inquiry about replacing traditional serial terminals with Flat Panel (LCD) terminals (Thin Clients) led to some research. The result is InnControl support of the Xterm terminal protocol. Now the DT Research WebDT 166 thin client (with Linux OS) and Linux X window desktop have been added to the Microsoft Windows, Linux console, and serial terminal as user workstations for InnControl.

13.	A request to expand the ability to void checks associated with alternate cash accounts generated a fresh look at the voiding tool. The result is a pretty serious update of the tool's usability and understandability.

12.

In response to the moving target presented by the various states in their SUTA reporting requirements we have added a tool which facilitates the consolidation of the individual SUTA reporting files (InnControl creates one for each property or payroll.) With this tool you can convently combine the individual files to one per state.

11.	The US Department of labor asks that some companies respond to a survey which summarizes employment activity. A new report has been added to InnControl Payroll (3-8-11) which provides most of the information required by this survey instrument.

10.	The user ID has been added to the time/date stamp at the top of most report pages. This is to better identify the source of printed reports.

9.	A tool added to the Maintain J/E Batches function which allows changing the company number on all items in the unposted journal entry. Useful when copying a journal entry from one company for use as a prototype for another company.

8.	A feature added to the employee list adds salary history as an option to the traditional current salary report.

7.	A new tool to ease management of AP batches. If your current AP batch has several Credit Companies it can be tedious to set them aside for later processing. The AP batch management tool has been expanded to allow several batches to be set aside with a single Transfer.

Some new features to make entry and management of AP batches easier and quicker. First a tool on the strip to change the vendor #, the invoice number, and/or invoice date after an invoice becomes part of an unposted batch. Second a strip option to repeat (copy) an invoice that is part of an unposted batch with a new vendor #, a new invoice number, and/or a new invoice date.

5.	A new tool for managing employee review schedules. Each salary record now has a review date option along with a review comment. An Employee salary review report has been added to the Employee Inquiry menu. It allows the user to report reviews which are late or are due in the near furure.

4.	At the end of the month we sometimes need to roll all or many companies to GL history. A feature has been added which allows the user to select all or several or one company for rolling to history.

To speed the process of creating and maintaining financial reports a new tool has been added to the report row list maintenance procedure. One can now replicate (copy) lines from any row list set to any location in the current row list. One can create macro like sub lists and conveniently insert them where desired.

To facilitate transmission of payroll deduction data to employee benefit service providers, the ability to output CSV text files has been added to the pay period processing deduction report. Each deduction type is written to a separate file to make sending selected information to proper service providers easy.

1.	InnControl ACH Addenda available at Remote Properties added to Accounts Payable. InnControl supports the encoding of ACH addenda to invoices as entered at Remote properties to be processed through the InnControl Network.

Highlights of the 2006 version of InnControl

10.

An improved reporting tool for employee inquiry has been added. The new tool reports Person, Salary, Distribution, Deduction and Benefit records. Selecting, Sorting and column choices are supported along with basic aggregation and formatting. Final report results are similar to the previous tool, although creation and maintenance are much easier, quicker and more intuitive The new tool additionally can be directed to send its output to a CSV (comma separated variable) file which is perfect for use in Excel for further processing..

New tools added for easier access and automated documentation of payroll deduction electronic transfers to collecting agencies.

What was that? Using ACH transfers to send deposits to state agencies for tax withheld, tax payments, garnishments withheld and others requires addenda in specific formats. The specific formats have not been a problem, but associating the right addendum with the employee transfer record (invoice) has been more of an opportunity. We made some improvements which allow for automatic association of the addendum with the invoice. I think it was actually easier to do than it is to explain.

User requests have produced 3 additional changes to the InnControl payroll. 1. Direct access to W2 history as well as current payroll records from the general employee search. 2. Default job record data has been added to the W2 history record for long term research purposes. 3. Selective automatic benefits based on employee pay type.

7.	The State of Minnesota decided to change their record format for electronic unemployment filing. The change is in the next release and is available now by calling support.

6.	A New Journal Entry can now be created by copying an already posted Journal Entry to the un-posted. Using 6->1->3 on the default menu gets you to "Display/Print a posted J/E," You'll find Copy on the strip.

The Financial Report Writer owes a vote of thanks to a new InnControl user who made some suggestions. A Feature, added a few versions ago, automatically builds detail income statements and balance sheets from the chart of accounts. This saved many hours of manual report preparation, but often ended up with many lines of "zeros" and unwanted single underlines. We were not able to come up with an answer to improve the build but our new user supplied the simple solution. "Don't print the line if it has all zeros and don't print the underline above it if you dont print the data line." One may set the "Print/Don't print zero lines" flag on the basic report. (The default and the result of converting to the new version is "Print zero lines".) A single/double underline flag has been added to the report row record. This flag can substitute for the "su" and "du" rows by causing the underline to print above the total row (if it prints.) It you have questions or need more detail for implementation, please contact support for assistance.

The process of updating the payroll system to support the greatly extended payroll deductions involved touching a great portion of the payroll program code. This process resulted in quite a little "while we are here" activity. We used the opportunity to make improvements to the user interface beyond the deduction requirements. We hope these changes will make the payroll system more consistent and easier to use.

The InnControl payroll deduction processing enjoys major change. Prior to this change a payroll was limited to a total of 20 deduction codes. The 2006 version will allow up to 99 deduction codes, although more than 20 for any given employee will cause some deductions on employee check stubs to be summarized. Additional parameters for the automatic calculation of deductions have also been added. These changes should make the automatic calculation of most court ordered deductions (garnishments) possible.

The InnControl payroll employee maintenance function got major rework. The process has been divided into chunks. (Chunks being logical subdivisions of the employee creation/maintenance process.) During the addition of a new employee the user is guided through the chunks and a visible record of mandatory and completed chunks is maintained. During employee maintenance chunks can be addressed directly. An option is also available to view and/or print all information about the employee.

Employee driver license and insurance records added. Fields to store driver's license and auto insurance information for employees who drive company vehicles or use their own vehicles for company business have been added. These fields may be updated using regular employee update processes or by special maintenance functions available at the central site and remote site. Reports for follow up on expired license and insurance are available along with general reports in printed and CSV form.

Highlights of the 2005 version of InnControl

13.

Vendor Messages has a new feature. Messages about vendors can be maintained from the vendor maintenance screen while name and address are in focus. Vendor messages have been found to be a convenient place to store additional contact and address information. It is quite easy to copy information from a vendor message and paste it into a Word document, an email, or other application where this information is needed.

12.

General Ledger Budget Management takes a step forward. Importing a budget now expects comma separated format CSV. Convenient communication with a number of spread sheets has been an important tool in InnControl budget management for many years. Several output formats are supported, although Excel has become the de-facto standard. The input standard has been space or tab separated. The most recent versions of Excel have some trouble producing reliable, predictable, space separated records. Excel does produce perfectly reliable CSV, so we have made the change.

11.

Financial Reporting has a new output feature. Any report prepared by the Financial Reporting SubSystem can be created in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) format with one simple change to the Report record.
If you find yourself jumping through hoops to get financial report image files imported into Excel , your life just got easier.

10.

Accounts Payable Vendor Management enjoys a new tool. A feature called Vendor Messages has been added. Messages about vendors can be easily added from the vendor maintenance screen or from the display vendor invoices function. The messages are largely free form and identify the date and individual who posted the message. Messages may be entered at both the central site and remote sites and will be distributed throughout the InnControl network to any site with the vendor on file.
Message reports can be made for all or individual vendors. Information about the Vendor, Vendor Messages and Unpaid Invoices can be included on the reports.

The expanding use of ACH cash transfers has created the need for expanded InnControl ACH function. Support for the use of ACH Adenda for sales tax payment, Payroll child support , Garnishments and other disbursements has been expanded. Now the ACH routing and addendum data can be associated at the time the invoice is enterd.

In response to several InnControl users, The loudest being the JDanSkinner.com accounting staff, A basic change has been made to the A/P invoice history organization. In holding with tradition the file has been organized by invoice number within vendors. This works well with a relatively small number of invoices, or when vendors are well organized and their invoice numbers increment nicely. However when the invoices for a vendor become numerous and they start their numbering sequence over every few months it becomes difficult to proceed in an orderly fashion.

Reacting to overwhelming customer demand (and to quiet the sound of swearing coming from the accounting office here) the invoice history is here after organized by invoice number within invoice date within vendor. The most obvious impact is in Display A/P Records by Vendor (menu 1-5-1) where the most recent invoices will be found at the end, where the display usually begins anyway. One can still find invoices by entering a few characters from the beginning of the invoice number, but scrolling will find the invoices in order by invoice date. I am judging this a success as we come out of beta because the accounting department language quality has improved dramatically. We are of course interested in your comments as the new feature goes into wide spread use.

In coordination with the livestock Sale_Barn system the city ledger (accounts receivable) module has been expanded to support Custodial and General accounts receivable with automatic transfer from Custodial to General. This is combined with an interface between the two systems to provide for full automation of the accounting interface from the Sale_Barn front office to the InnControl back office.

6.	The Wage and Hour required method of computing overtime pay rates for Banquet service employees compensated by hourly wage and a share of the Banquet service charge has been fully integrated into the InnControl payroll package.

5.	Employee benefit management has been expanded to provide history retention of inactive (no longer active) benefit plans. Mandatory but inactive benefits will no longer be automatically added to an employee during the initial setup (hire) process.

4.	A new security measure to insure that the central office is aware of a re-opened revenue day has been implemented. A password process on the central office computer means the re-open password will NOT be computed by hand any more.

3.	The *n?x Explorer by JDanSkinner.com has been added for easier navigation of the file system when needed. Applies to Linux and Unix systems only.

To better insure Central site data security, menu changes have been made to disable the loading of vendors and charts of account while allowing the items to appear on both Central Site and Remote Site menus at the same location. This allows the Central Site accountant to share a view of the system menu structure with the remote side accountant while assuring that Central Site file imports will not happen by accident.

1.	As the vendor file grows in number, finding just the right one gets harder and harder. To speed the search the locate function has been expanded to provide for text string searches in Name, Phone number, Fax number, Email address, Street address, City, or Tax ID.

Highlights of the 2004 version of InnControl

1.	All new printer format control system. Not much different on the surface but under the covers all new communication with the printer and improved font and character size control.

2.	NACHA GL cash transfer and A/P NACHA cash transfers added to updated employee direct deposit facilities. A/P NACHA facility will process tax and general Addenda with automatic insertion of dates and amounts.

3.	Short cut to Maintaining NACHA routing information in both G/L and A/P.

4.	The InnControl central site version has been ported to Linux and is now fully functional in Linux multi-user.

5.	Payroll tax and W2 update for 2003/2004.

6.	InnControl remote and Windows single user now available for Windows XP.

7.	Linux and Windows support 43 line screens. Almost twice as much information on a single screen (If that is a good thing?) This is under user control.

Kermit implementation using K95 from Columbia University. K95 replaces Procomm as the communication platform for the Kermit data exchange and for remote or local PC based logins for email or application use. While functionally not much different, K95 is supported on Windows XP providing a path to the future.