BUCS 24 Fund Accounting Software Release

The BUCS 24 Release is loaded with new features, improvements, and refinements. These changes come from the Annual Survey and requests submitted throughout the year. Our goal when updating BUCS is to make the system faster, more efficient, and more pleasing to use. Below are highlights of the major changes and new features found in BUCS 24.

1. Leases. A Leases Maintenance program has been added to maintain leases. Leases Maintenance is located on the Leases menu of the General-Ledger menu. Everything under the Leases menu of the General-Ledger menu is part of the new Leases module. The Leases module is used for leases that are short-term, long-term non-transferring, or subscription leases where the organization is the lessee. The Leases module does not handle leases where the organization is the lessor. Long-Term non-transferring leases fall under GASB Statement 87. Subscription leases fall under GASB Statement 96. Short-term leases can be added to Leases Maintenance for informational purposes only. Short-Term leases do not fall under GASB Statement 87 or GASB Statement 96. For short-term leases, the user is able to add/edit the appropriate fields for the
   lease directly in Leases Maintenance. Long-Term non-transferring and subscription leases must have their basic information added in Leases Maintenance, but the values for the lease are posted in Leases Posting.
   Below are additional features that have been added to handle these leases:
   1. A Leases Classes program has been added to maintain classes for leases. Leases Classes is located on the Leases menu of the General-Ledger menu.
      
   2. A Leases Departments program has been added to maintain departments for leases. Leases Departments is located on the Leases menu of the General-Ledger menu.
   3. A Leases General Ledger Codes program has been added to maintain general ledger codes for leases.
      Leases General Ledger Codes is located on the Leases menu of the General-Ledger menu.
   4. A Leases Locations program has been added to maintain locations for leased items. Leases Locations is located on the Leases menu of the General-Ledger menu.
   5. A Leases Posting program has been added to the system. There are six options to select from when performing a leases posting: Initial Value, Amortization, Closing, Modification, Termination, and Existing Value. The Initial Value option is used after a long-term non-transferring or subscription lease has been added in Leases Maintenance to create the initial values for the lease. During the posting of a lease’s initial values, the lease’s amortization month(s) will be determined based on the assigned
      amortization frequency, payment due, and either lease start date or lease end date. A payment projection will also be generated for the lease during the posting of a lease’s initial values. Once a lease has values, the Initial Values option cannot be used on the lease again. The Amortization option is used to post amortization for a range of leases. Only long-term non-transferring and subscription leases with an active status have amortization performed. When posting amortization, an amortization month must
      be selected. Only leases that have that amortization month assigned and fall within the other ranges will have amortization posted. Once a lease has been fully amortized, its status will automatically change to Inactive. The Closing option is used to post the closing entries for a long-term non-transferring or subscription lease. Only leases with an inactive status can be closed. Once a lease is closed, its status will automatically change to Closed. The Modification option is used to post lease modifications if the modifications to the lease have been determined to not be significant enough for a new lease. If modifications are significant enough for a new lease, the existing lease should be terminated and a new lease created. Only long-term non-transferring and subscription leases with an active status can be modified. When a lease is modified, the payment projection for the lease will be
      updated and the amortization month(s) could be adjusted based on the modifications. The Termination option is used to post lease terminations. Only long-term non-transferring and subscription leases with an active status can be terminated. The Existing Value option is used to assign the values to a long-term non-transferring or subscription lease that was put in place prior to having the Lease module. Once a lease has values, the Existing Value option cannot be used on the lease again. Also, the Existing Value option does not create any posting entries or update G/L accounts. During the posting of a lease’s existing values, the lease’s amortization month(s) will be determined, and a payment projection will also be generated.
   6. A Leases Payment Projection report has been added. This program will list leases within the entered ranges, and then list the payment projection information for the lease. Totals will be printed for each lease along with grand totals at the end of the report. For users with the Data Dictionary Module, there is also the ability to send this report to Excel.
   7. A Leases Amortization Projection report has been added. When the report is run, it is automatically sent to Excel. If the user does not have the Data Dictionary module the menu item will be disabled. The report will show the projected amortization for leases that fall within the ranges that the user
      specifies. Only long-term non-transferring and/or subscription leases with an active status which are not fully amortized will have their amortization projected. The user can specify the starting period for the projection. The starting period will default to the system’s current period and the starting period cannot be for earlier than the system’s current period. The starting period for the projection should be the first period that the user has not already run amortization for. The amortization projection for a lease will be shown by fiscal year for each month until the lease is fully depreciated. Amortization amounts for a lease will only appear in the months that amortization should be performed for the lease. Totals by fiscal year and by month will also be shown for each lease. Grand totals listing the number of
      leases to be amortized and the breakdown by fiscal year and period will also be shown. The report allows the user to see what the future amortization amounts would be for budgeting and planning purposes.
   8. A new Lease History Report has been added. This program will list any leases that have history items within the entered ranges along with the detail for each history item. For users with the Data Dictionary Module, there is also the ability to send this report to Excel.
   9. When creating Encumbrances, Purchase Orders, Invoices, and Journal Entries, along with the associated Standards, there is now the ability to assign a Lease ID to these transactions. The associated reports and journals have also been modified to have Lease ID ranges and to have the Lease ID printed on reports.
   10. The Purchase Order Print programs have been modified to print the Lease ID information only if there is something in the Lease ID field, except for the Crystal Reports version. The Crystal Reports file has the Lease ID field in the file, and it will need to be added to any existing PO forms.
   11. The Purchase Order E-Mail has been modified to have to Lease ID information if there is a Lease ID assigned to the PO.
   12. During a Fiscal Reset, a screen will display asking if the Amortization YTD numbers need to be reset.
   13. The Note Types program has been modified to now have an option for Lease note types.
   14. The Change Paths program has been modified to now have options for Lease and Lease Note paths.
   15. There is the ability to reprint any Lease Posting Transaction logs via the Lease Posting Logs Reprint program located off of the Utilities menu item.
2. Notes. There is now the ability to Pin a note on the Notes screens. This change applies to all the available types of notes: Vendors, A/R Customer, Fixed Assets, Fund Control, Chart of Accounts, Investments, Projects, Clients and Leases. These Pinned notes stay at the top of the notes grid regardless of the note date. There is a new “Pin to Top” checkbox on the note detail screen. When this box is checked, the note will show at the top of the notes grid. If there are multiple notes with the Pin to Top box checked, the most recently checked note will show at the top. The pinning is not shown in Follow-up Alerts or Notes Reports. A bitmap of a pin will show in the Note grid column indicating that it is pinned to the top.
3. Report Parameters. There have been a couple of changes to Report Parameters, they are as follows:
   1. The printing of the Directory of Reports has changed so there is now an option screen where the user can enter in a Report ID Range and a Report Date or Subtitle. The report was also changed to no longer print the blank line between each report. There is also now an option, for users with the Database module, to send the report to Excel.
   2. The screen on the List Parameters ranges screen has been changed so that the title on the frame is now “Report ID Range” instead of “Parameter Range”. There is also the ability to enter a Report Date or
      Subtitle on the report.
4. Vendors. When adding a vendor, once a name is entered, additional testing has been added to look for vendors with the same name. The program will now look for all variations of the vendor’s name regardless of the case that was used on the name. For example, the program will now flag “Ace Hardware*” and “ACE HARDWARE*” as duplicates, where previously the case needed to match exactly.
5. Encumbrances. There have been a few changes to Encumbrances, they are as follows:
   1. There is a new option that when entering an Encumbrance, when it takes you to the Purchase Order screen, where it will force the user to complete the entering of the Purchase Order, they will not be able to cancel out of it. There is a new, “Require Purchase Order when Adding Encumbrance”, checkbox on the A/P tab in System Controls that turns this new feature on.
   2. When accessing the actual Purchase Order, if the Encumbrance is still in the system, there is an Open Encumbrance button that can be pressed that will allow the user to view the open encumbrance. For users with the Requisition Control Module, there is an Archived Encumbrance button that can be pressed that will view the Archived Encumbrance. This will allow the user to see the G/L information that was used on the encumbrance.
6. Re-Open Encumbrance. There is now the ability to Re-Open an encumbrance that has been closed. A closed encumbrance is an encumbrance that has either been deleted or entirely liquidated from an invoice. A new Re-Open Encumbrance program lists all the encumbrances that can be Re-Opened. This option is only for users with the Requisition Control Module and is located off the Encumbrance Processing menu. The encumbrance amounts that are available to Re-Open are determined by the amount of excess liquidation. When an encumbrance is deleted, the amounts that are currently on the encumbrance can be Re-Opened. When an Invoice is Entirely liquidating an encumbrance, if the liquidation amount is greater than the expense amount, the difference will be available to Re-Open. Only encumbrances for the current
   Fiscal Year are available to Re-Open, therefore, Carryover encumbrances cannot be Re-Opened. Also, invoices that are paid in the next Fiscal Year cannot have the encumbrance re-opened. To Re-Open an encumbrance, once an encumbrance is selected in the selection grid and the Re-Open button is pressed, a window will open showing basic information about the encumbrance and the amounts that are available to Re-Open. There is the ability to view the Archived Encumbrance for more information about the encumbrance. When the Re-Open button is pressed, the encumbrance will be re-created from the Archived Encumbrance with the amounts that are available to Re-Open along with the recreation of the Purchase Order from the Archived Purchase Order. If any of the accounts on the invoices are on a Cash Basis, the entries will be posted in the period that the invoice is for. If the accounts are all on an Accrual Basis, the posting entries will happen in the current period. Once an encumbrance is re-opened, it will be removed from the Re-Open file. There is also the ability to print a report of the encumbrances available to re-open.
7. Re-Open Encumbrance History. The new Re-Open Encumbrance History program lists all the encumbrances that have been Re-Opened. The history program shows the date it was re-opened, the user initials of who re-opened the encumbrance along with the amounts that were re-opened. There are numerous ranges on the screen to limit the information shown in the history grid. When the Detail button is pressed, a window will display a screen showing the detail of the Re-Open along with the ability to view the Archived Encumbrance. There is also the ability to print a history report.
8. Invoice Processing. When Selectively Loading invoices, when an invoice is selected in the grid, the row color of the grid will now change to a light-yellow color.
9. Funds Availability. There is a new option that will allow the Use Funds Availability Test to be turned on, but not print the report each time the Check Register is run. There is a new option in System Controls, on the G/L tab, to “Only Show Failed Screen when Test Fails”. When the “Use Funds Availability Test” and this new option is selected, when the Funds Availability Test passes, the Check Register will complete, and the backup reminder message box will be displayed. When the test fails, the failed screen will now display listing any issues. From this screen you can choose to print the actual report if needed. If you choose to send the report to Excel, the report will be sent to Excel, if you just printed the report, the funds availability report will be printed to the printer. When the new “Print Funds Availability Report” is selected, the report
   will print each time the register is printed, like it currently does.
10. Registers. When printing the Check, ACH or Electronic Payment Registers, there is now an option for a “One Line Per Transaction in Excel”. When this option is selected, the register will consist of one line for each Invoice with no G/L distributions on the report. At the end of each line, there will be an additional field that will include the Check Total. If there are multiple invoices on the Check, each line will include the Check Total. If there are any issues with the transaction, i.e. a negative check amount, the error descriptions will print at the end of the line. There is the ability to set the default for this option in System Controls on the A/P tab. Please note, there is one option in System Controls that controls the Check Register, ACH Register and Electronic Payment Register.
11. Check Reconciliation. There is now the ability to have a comment on all the transactions in Check Reconciliation, not just the Unclaimed or Voided transactions. The Unclaimed and Void Comments have been rebranded to now just be a Comment. To assign or view a comment on a transaction, right click on an item and choose the Comment menu item. Transactions that have a comment on them will have a comment bitmap before the transactions type field. The labels on any of the reports that currently print the Unclaimed or Void Comment have had the heading text changed to Comment. Also, in the Total Cleared grid, on the bottom right portion of the screen, there are now totals for ACH Transactions.
12. Fund Accounts Analysis. The number of funds that can be graphed in Fund Accounts Analysis has been
    increased from 10 to 15.
13. Fee Receipt History. An option to Change Payment Type has been added to the Fee Receipt History Detail screen in Fee Receipt History. When the Change Payment Type button is pressed, the user will have the ability to assign a different payment type to the fee receipt. The Change Payment Type button will only be enabled if the user has update permissions to Fee Receipt History. Only Receipt transaction type records can have their payment type changed. The Change Payment Type button will also be disabled if a Receipt transaction type has been reversed.
14. Projects. There are now total fields at the bottom of the Outstanding Invoice, Encumbrances, Archived Encumbrances and Purchase Order tabs. These are like the existing Paid Invoice Total on the Paid Invoice tab. These totals are for all the transactions for the Project, not just the ones shown currently in the grid.
15. Preferences. The Restore Defaults button in Preferences has been changed to a Restore All Defaults button. It still works the same as before where, when pressed, all preference defaults will be restored. A new Restore Grid Defaults button has been added in Preferences. When the Restore Grid Defaults button is pressed, only the column preferences for the grids in the system will be restored to their defaults.
16. System. The icons on the Task Pane have been refreshed and the fonts in the Favorites, Quick Links, and status bar area have been enhanced for a more modern appearance. We at FREY Municipal Software would like to thank everyone who responded to the BUCS survey and the beta testing of the product. The ideas and suggestions that we receive from our users is the driving force behind the changes that are implemented into BUCS.