Recent Software Changes
Software Change Summary
There are a few major software changes in the latest version of AccountScout 2018.1 to help you grow your newspaper. As always, if your company is on an active service contract, or on a SaaS program, you will receive this upgrade free of charge. Call our support team at 303-791-3301 if you would like assistance with the installation.
The following post will go into detail about all the changes and how it can specifically help the production and billing team be more efficient. This month Fake Brains has added three new major functionalities in the latest release to increase productivity:
Merge Advertiser Tool: this new tool consolidates two Advertisers into a single advertiser to consolidate duplicate accounts. All advertiser related information including Contacts, Activities, Orders, Payments, etc. are moved to the advertiser selected as “To Keep”. If you’d like a walkthrough of this process, we have a video here.
Free Digital Asset Manager Integration: Integration with a free digital asset manager (i.e. DAM) tool has been added to the Retail Order screen. Whenever a Retail Order is saved, the DAM is automatically notified to create, update or mark the associated order for deletion. This is useful for the Composing team to manage their design work, in real time, as the orders are entered or modified within AccountScout. Internal communication between departments in your business is critical. Fake Brains helps you stay in real time communication across your staff with ease.
All Screens with Save Layout: Upon many requests, the screen layout is no longer automatically saved when closing a screen. To reset your forms to your specific liking, a new “Save Layout” button has been added to all the ribbon bars to save the layout only when clicked. Now, when you make custom layout changes to a screen such as the Retail Order, Advertiser, Classified/Legal Order or Payments screen, click the “Save Layout” button before closing the window. .
Software Upgrade Notes
With this latest software release, the database will be upgraded.
.NET Framework Upgrade to V4.6.1: The .NET framework used for AccountScout, the AccountScout Mobile App Service, and the Classified Order Entry Service has been upgraded to Version 4.6.1. For a list of supported Windows Operating systems visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/get-started/system-requirements
Accounting Software Related Changes
There were many new changes in our recent release related to the accounting department. It is recommended to email this section to your bookkeeper or accounting staff so they are aware of the following new updates to AccountScout.
Merge Advertiser tool: As mentioned above, this new Tool will consolidate two Advertisers into a single advertiser to eliminate the duplicate. Account balances, and all related information are consolidated into one account. When you are billing/invoicing, printing statements, or searching for an advertiser and notice the duplicate record, you will have a way to consolidate the duplicate advertisers into one.
Invoice Screen: When Payments or Advertiser Credits have been applied to an invoice, they are now displayed on the invoice and can be opened with a double click. This makes it easier to see all of the pertinent information at a glance without needing to navigate to the Payments screen separately.
Invoice and Refund Screens: An “Unapply Credits” button has been added to the form’s ribbon bar, to “unapply”, which unselects the attached link to all credits that have been applied to the loaded Invoice or Refund. The specific credit remains on the account, and is now detached from being applied to the specific invoice, no longer marking that invoice as ‘Paid’.
Invoice Batch: When performing an “un-generate” function by clicking the “Undo Generate” button, any credits that have been applied to an invoice being deleted, are automatically unapplied. In prior versions, those applied credits prevented the invoice in the batch from being automatically deleted.
Interest Batch: Similar to the above Invoice Batch change, the same change has been made for Interest Batches that are “un-generated”
Credit Card Payments: In order to prevent a user from mistakenly deleting an AccountScout credit card payment, an authorized credit card charge can no longer be deleted. When attempting to delete such a payment, a message is displayed telling the user to either Void the charge if it has not been settled, or to Refund the card if it has been settled. If you are permitted to Void the charge, the payment can be deleted. If the charge cannot be Voided, the message says to issue a credit card refund and to create an offsetting AccountScout refund.
Composing, Designer & Production Software Related Changes
The following changes can specifically increase the productivity of your production team. It is recommended to send them the updates in this posting as well as the following information:
Digital Asset Manager: As mentioned above, a new, free, digital asset manager tool has been added as a Retail Order Digital Asset Manager. Whenever a Retail Order is saved, your DAM integration is automatically notified to create, update or mark the associated ad order card for deletion. This is useful for the composing team to manage their design work. If you are not familiar with an asset manager integration, it is highly recommended you call out support staff at 303-791-3301, as it is very easy to use and greatly improves communication both within and amongst your departments.
Define Sales Types: Added a check box entitled “Do not export retail runs having this Sales Type to the Digital Asset Manager,” which when, checked prevents runs entered on the Retail Order of the associated Sales Type from being exported to a DAM. This is useful for items such as circulars, house ads, space and subscriptions, that are commonly entered using the Retail Order screen, yet do not need to be exported to the design team.
Digital Asset Manager Export Tool: Added a column in the table of orders to export for the “Sales Type.” Now retail orders associated with Sales Types marked as “Exclude from DAM Export” are not exported.
Retail Order Related Changes
Retail Order Screen: The Ad Copy pane now has an option for PDF documents, to zoom to fit the width of the ad into the available window
User Permission Related Changes
Merge Advertiser Tool: A permission has been added to allow user access to the new “Merge Advertisers Tool.” Roles allowing permissions to the “Assign Sales Reps Tool” will automatically be granted this permission during the database upgrade.
Activity Manager Tool: A permission has been added to allow user access to the recently introduced “Activity Manager Tool.” Roles allowing permission to the “Assign Sales Reps Tool” will automatically be granted this new permission during the database upgrade.
General Changes
All Screens with Save layout: As mentioned above, the screen layout is no longer automatically saved when closing a screen containing a ribbon bar. A new “Save Layout” button has been added to all of the ribbon bars to save the layout only when clicked.
Other Changes
The mobile app and classified order entry Web Services now require .NET V4.6.1. There a few other miscellaneous changes you can view in the full What’s New document, available from the AccountScout Help menu.
Recommendations
It is recommended to stay up to date with all AccountScout releases. Many, if not all, of our releases are based on feedback from our customers. We want all of you to know what we’re updating and how to implement these upgrades to increase your productivity. By staying up to date, you will get the most out of your AccountScout software. Subscribe to this blog, or YouTube channel, to get notified every time there is a new AccountScout software update.