Municipal Software CUBIC 15 Release Updates

CUBIC 15  was  released  to  our  customers  in  December 2018. The  15  Release is  chock  full  of  improvements  throughout. You can find all the details in the 15 Release Letter (also posted under the video) as well as the release video.

The CUBIC v15 Release is loaded with new features, improvements, and refinements. These changes have come from the Annual Survey, technology advances, and requests submitted throughout the year. Our goal in updating CUBIC is to keep the product technically state-of-the-art, more efficient, and more pleasing to use. Below are highlights of the major changes and new features found in CUBIC v15.0.

1.   Customer Maintenance.There have been numerous enhancements made to Customer Maintenance, they are as follows:

• There is now the ability to assign a Comment to Bill/Pay History items. When editing a customer in Customer Maintenance and viewing the detail of a history item, there is now the ability to enter a comment for the item by pressing the Edit button next to the comment. When viewing the history item in other locations, there will only be the ability to view the comment. The comment field has also been added to the end of the History grid.
• There is a new Shut-Off checkbox on the Billing Information tab to indicate that a customer is Shut-Off. This check box will allow the customer to be marked as Shut-off, but the customer will still be billed (as long as the customer’s status is Active). There are a few new features that have been added that reference this new field in System Controls on the Shut-Off Automation Screen, they are as follows: The first one is “Exclude Customers Marked as Shut-Off”. When this box is checked, when Generating Shut-Off Delinquent Notices or Generating Shut-Off Work Orders, customers with this new field checked will be skipped. The next option is “Automatically Mark Customer as Shut-Off when Shut-Off Work Order is Completed”. When this box is checked, once a Shut-Off Work Order is completed, it will check the new Shut-Off checkbox on the Customer. The last option is “Automatically Clear Customer Shut-Off Indicator when Reconnect Work Order is Completed”. When this box is checked, once a Reconnect Work Order is completed, the Shut-Off checkbox on the customer will be cleared.
• On the Service Information tab, there is a new “Suppress Non-Active Services with No Balance” checkbox directly above the Services grid. When this box is checked, any non-active services that do not have a balance will be suppressed from the grid.
• There is now the ability to color code services based on their status. The colors are defined in System Controls by pressing the “Customer Service Status Color Preferences” button on the Preferences tab. One use for this would be to have inactive services be in red so that it is clear which services are inactive.
• There is now the ability to flag a customer as Tax Exempt. There is also the ability to enter Tax Exempt Activation and Deactivation dates. These dates work like the Penalty Exempt dates that are currently on the customer. These dates are strictly for reference and do not affect when a customer is tax exempt or not. When a customer is marked as Tax Exempt all services and charges for a customer will be flagged as a tax exempt transaction regardless of the Tax Exempt status of the Service.
• Tax Exempt Activation and Deactivation dates have been added to services. These dates work like the Penalty Exempt dates that are currently on the service. These dates are strictly for reference and do not affect when a service is tax exempt or not.
• When viewing the detail of a Usage History item, if the usage is for a sewer service where the usage was calculated via Summer Sewer, a label will now display on the screen indicating this. The text “Summer Sewer” will display on the left side of the screen in the area under the Cancel button in blue text.
• The rate code’s Charge/Usage Factor is now shown on the Usage tab of the Service Information window in Customer Maintenance.
• For Unmetered Services, there is now a Serial Number field available. There is also an option on the Customer Copy options screen to determine if this field should be copied to the new customer.
• The Meter Size field for a metered service has been changed to a drop-down list that will list all of the available meter sizes that are assigned to the rate code. This will ensure that a valid meter size is entered for the service.
• The radio buttons on the Synchronize Customer Information screen have been change to now be more descriptive. They now spell out Billing Information and Owner Information instead of just having Billing and Owner.
• When accessing a Metered or Unmetered Service, there is now the ability to test the rate that is associated with the Service. When the Test Rate button that is located at the bottom left of the screen is pressed, a screen will be displayed that looks very similar to the Test Rate tab in Rates Maintenance. From this screen the user can enter test usage, for metered services or test units for unmetered services (if applicable) then press the calculate button to see the charges. There is also the ability to change the meter size for metered services.
• When performing a Customer Copy, there is a new checkbox in the Service Information to Copy section that now includes the Final Bill checkbox. Previously there were only Penalty Exempt and Tax Exempt check-boxes. There are also defaults for this new option in System Controls on the Customer Copy Preferences screen.

2. Customer Notes. The way that it is determined who receives a follow-up note alert for a note has been changed. Now when a note is added to the system, a Follow Up User is now specified for the note. This user is defaulted to the same name as the Author but is also able to be changed. This gives the user the ability to add a note and assign the follow up responsibilities to another user. There is also a User Login search next to the new Follow Up User field. The Follow Up Alerts program has been changed to now use this new field instead of using the Author field. The Follow Up User has also been added to the note grids. The Notes report also has new Follow Up User ranges. During the 15.0 conversion, the Author fields will be converted into the Follow Up user field.

3. Follow Up Alerts. There is now the ability to View or Edit a Customer from the Follow-Up Note Alerts screen.

4. Customer List. When the Service Information option is selected, the service totals that print at the end of the Customer List has been changed to print differently. Now, each rate will have a line for each meter size along with a count for that meter size that is included on the report.

5. Customer Labels. When printing Owner Address Labels, there is a new option “Suppress Duplicate Owner Labels”. When this checkbox is checked, if the same owner address label has already been printed, the duplicate will not print.

6. Customer History Report. There is a new “Include History Comments” checkbox option on the History Report. When this box is checked, if the history item has a comment associated with it, it will print on a line below the detail. There is also the ability to set preferences for this new checkbox.

7. Customer Usage Report. There are two new report options on the Customer Usage Report. They are “Summer Sewer Usage” and “Not Summer Sewer Usage”. When sewer services are included on the report, these two new options will be enabled. When the “Summer Sewer Usage” box is checked, if the sewer usage was calculated via the summer sewer calculation, it will be included on the report. When the “Not Summer Sewer Usage” box is checked, if the usage was not calculated via the summer sewer calculation, it will be included on the report. One of the potential uses of these new options is to give the user the ability to generate a listing of sewer usages that were calculated by summer sewer. The report has also been modified to now have book totals for each book.

8. Customer Mail Merge. An “Only Mail Merge Budget Billing Customers” option has been added to the Customer Mail Merge. This will allow a letter to be sent only to Budget Billing customers. This option is only available if the system has the Budget Billing module.

9. Service Balance Report. A Service Balance Report has been added to the system. The Service Balance Report is located on the General menu and there is also a link to it at the bottom of the General task pane. The Service Balance Report shows the current balance for a customer’s services and the service balance is broken out to show how much of the balance is remaining in charges, taxes, and penalties. The report also has rate code, service abbreviation, and service type summary options. The summary options use the same default settings from System Controls that are used by the Trial Balances and A/R Reconciliation Report. A customer will not appear on the report if all of its services have zero balances. The report can also be sent to Excel if the system has the Data Dictionary module. The Service Balance Report has also been added to the Report Scheduler.

10. Deposit Report. The Deposit Report has been changed to include totals by service. The totals will now list all of the deposit totals for each service type that has a deposit appear on the report and then a total for all deposits and then interest totals for each service type that has interest appear on the report and then a total for all interest and then a grand total for all deposits and interest.

11. Rates Maintenance. There have be a few changes to Rates Maintenance, they are as follows:

• The meter size for metered services has been changed from a 2 digit numeric field to a 10 digit alpha numeric field. This change allows for meter sizes to be more specific and potentially align with the actual meter size. (i.e. ¾ Inch, .750 etc…) Now a meter size is selected from a drop down list of available meter sizes for the service type.
• The General Ledger Code Description has been included on the rate code screens to the right of the G/L Code.
• A new “Fuel Adjustment Exempt” checkbox has been added to metered rate codes. When this box is checked, if a service is setup to calculate a Fuel Adjustment, services billed with this rate code will not get a Fuel Adjustment calculated.

12. Meter Sizes. A new Meter Size File Maintenance program has been added to store the available sizes for each service type. This new maintenance program is located off of the Rates menu. There is an ID Change option that will change the meter size in all Services, Rates and meters in Meter Maintenance. This file gets automatically created during the 15.0 data conversion with meter sizes that are defined in current rates.

13. Rate Study. An option has been added to the Rate Study to return to the report options screen once the report has finished printing. A preference has also been added for this option.

14. Adjustment Entry. There have been a couple changes to Adjustments, they are as follows:

• From the adjustment entry screen, there is now the ability to test the rate that is getting adjusted. This is accomplished by pressing the “Test Rate” button on the Adjustment Detail screen. Once the button is pressed, a screen will be displayed that looks very similar to the Test Rate tab in Rates Maintenance. From this screen the user can enter in test usage for metered services or test units for unmetered services (if applicable) then press the calculate button to see the charges. There is also the ability to change the meter size for metered services.
• When adding an adjustment in Interactive Billing, there is a new option to “Show Adjustments Entered During This Session” that when selected will display a window below the adjustment window showing all previous adjustments entered during the current Add session.

15. Billing/Adjustment Entry. When a Customer or Service is marked as Tax Exempt, the Tax fields will be disabled in Billing and Adjustment Entry. This will stop an unwanted entry of amounts in these fields.

16. Billing Edit List. New Tax Exempt and Not Tax Exempt checkboxes have been added to the Billing Edit List. The system has been changed so that all transactions get marked as Tax Exempt or Not Tax Exempt depending on the status of the customer or service at the time the bill is entered. Please note that these new options will only work for bills/adjustments entered after the 15.0 update is installed.

17. Bill Print. The Bill Print Run Totals have been changed so that the book/account range that was used is now shown on the run totals page.

18. Billing Journal. New Tax Exempt and Not Tax Exempt checkboxes have been added to the Billing Journal. The system has been changed so that all billed transactions in the invoice file are now marked as Tax Exempt or Not Tax Exempt depending on the status of the customer or service at the time the bill is entered. This change allows the system to now have the ability to differentiate between Tax Exempt and Not Tax Exempt transactions on the Billing Journal. One common use for this change is to get a Billing Journal for all tax exempt customers. Please note that this new option will only work for bills entered after the 15.0 update is installed. All transactions in the system before this release will be marked as Not Tax Exempt.

19. Monthly Billing Report. New Tax Exempt and Not Tax Exempt checkboxes have been added to the Monthly Billing Report. The system has been changed so that all billed transactions in the invoice file are now marked as Tax Exempt or Not Tax Exempt depending on the status of the customer or service at the time the bill is entered. This change allows the system to now have the ability to differentiate between Tax Exempt and Not Tax Exempt transactions on the report. One common use for this change is to get a Monthly Billing Report for all tax exempt customers. Please note that this new option will only work for bills entered after the 15.0 update is installed. All transactions in the system before this release will be marked as Not Tax Exempt.

20. Delinquent Notices. Added the ability to reprint the Delinquents Transaction Log that the user can choose to have printed after printing delinquent notices. The new reprint function is on the File|Utilities menu. It is the Delinquents Transaction Log Reprint menu item. The delinquent transaction logs will be archived even if the user does not select the option to print the transaction log when printing delinquent notices.

21. Owner Delinquent Journal. An Owner Delinquent Journal has been added to the system. The Owner Delinquent Journal is located on the Delinquents menu off the Customers menu. The Owner Delinquent Journal includes delinquent customers where the Tenant does not equal the Owner. The delinquent accounts are grouped by the owner name and address. This could be used to provide property owners with a list of their tenants who have delinquent balances. The report can also be sent to Excel if the system has the Data Dictionary module. The Owner Delinquent Journal has also been added to the Report Scheduler.

22. Unbilled List. There is now the ability to have the Transponder Number print on the Unbilled List. There is a new “Print Transponder Number” option below the Meter Number option on screen. There is also the ability to set preferences for this new option.

23. High Usage Notice. A new High Usage Notice has been added to the system. This new program allows the user to generate a notice to send to customers informing them of a high usage bill. Users have the option of selecting a book/account number range, customer status options, service types, an estimation option and a Reading Date Range. There is also an option generate a note for the customer indicating that a notice was printed for them. After the ranges are entered, the program will then display a grid that lists all of the customers that have a high usage in the range. There is separate item for each service that was billed with a high usage. The user will then have to manually select which items will get a notice. There is also the ability to view or edit the customer if necessary from this screen. Once the OK button is pressed, the notices will be printed. The text for the notice is setup in System Controls on the Statement Information Tab. On this screen there is a High Usage Notice Format button, when this button is pressed a screen will display to enter in all of the necessary information. On this screen there is the ability to enter text that will print on each notice. There are up to 8 lines of 132 characters available for each service type. This gives the ability to tailor the text to the specific service type. When the notice is printed, it will contain the service information along with the usage amount, a grid listing the previous 12 usages along with a Usage Graph.

24. A/R Reconciliation Report. The “Only print customers with negative service balances” option has been removed from the A/R Reconciliation Report and has been replaced with three new options. The new options are: “Customers with services with only positive balances”, “Customers with services with only negative balances”, and “Customers with services with both positive and negative balances”. To have all customers with balances appear on the report, all three new options must be selected. If a user would only select the new “Customers with services with both positive and negative balance” option, the report would only show customers that have multiple services where some of the customer’s service balances are positive and some are negative. These are customers which may need to have a payment adjustment made to them through the Payment Adjuster. The Report Scheduler has also been updated for the new options. The layout of the A/R Reconciliation Report has also been changed. The report now looks more like it does when it is sent to Excel. Each service is now listed on its own line to make the report easier to read.

25. Real-Time Cash Receipts. The Receipt Transaction Log in Real-Time Receipts has been changed so that it checks the new customer Shut-Off option for payment transactions and if a customer is marked as Shut-Off, an asterisk will print to the left of the transaction type indicating that the payment is to a customer that is marked as shut-off. A legend explaining what the asterisk means will also be printed at the bottom of the report if there are transactions that have the asterisk on the report. The Receipt Transaction Log Reprint will also be updated with the customer’s shut-off status for payment transactions so the reprint can show the asterisk.

26. Batch Receipts/Simple Batch Payments Edit List. The Batch Receipts Edit List and Simple Batch Payments Edit List have been changed so that it checks the new customer Shut-Off option for payment transactions and if a customer is marked as Shut-Off, an asterisk will print to the left of the transaction type indicating that the payment is to a customer that is marked as shut-off. A legend explaining what the asterisk means will also be printed at the bottom of the report if there are transactions that have the asterisk on the report. A new “Only print customers marked as shut-off” option has also been added to the report. When this option is selected, only customers that are marked as shut-off that have payment transactions will appear on the report, all other transaction types will not appear on the report. When this option is selected, the transaction type fields will become disabled and the “Only Print Applied Deposit Information” option will also become disabled. If the “Only Print Applied Deposit Information” option is selected, the new “Only print customers marked as shut-off” option will become disabled. A preference has also been added to the Batch Receipt Edit List preferences for the new “Only print customers marked as shut-off” option.

27. Batch Receipts/Simple Batch Payments Update. The Receipt Transaction Log in Batch Receipts Update and Simple Batch Payments Update have been changed so that it checks the new customer Shut-Off option for payment transactions and if a customer is marked as Shut-Off, an asterisk will print to the left of the transaction type indicating that the payment is to a customer that is marked as shut-off. A legend explaining what the asterisk means will also be printed at the bottom of the report if there are transactions that have the asterisk on the report. The Receipt Transaction Log Reprint will also be updated with the customer’s shut-off status for payment transactions so the reprint can show the asterisk.

28. Receipts Journal. Grand totals have been added to the Receipt Journal when the detail is printed. The grand totals will provide a breakdown by transaction type and pay type. The transaction count, customer count, and amount totals for each combination of transaction type and pay type that appear on the detail report will be listed.

29. Refunds. There have been a couple of enhancements to Refunds, they are as follow:

• An option in System Controls on the Cash Receipts tab has been added to “Include Address on Refund Transaction Log”. When this option is turned on, the customer’s billing address will print on the Refund Transaction Log. This would be useful for users that use this report to generate refund checks instead of having BUCS produce the refund checks.
• There is now the ability to reprint the Refund Transaction Log that the user can choose to have printed after processing refunds. The new reprint function is on the File|Utilities menu. It is the Refund Transaction Log Reprint menu item. The refund transaction logs will be archived even if the user does not have the option turned on in System Controls to have the refund transaction log print during refunds

30. Write-offs. When performing a Write-off through either Receipt Posting or Batch Receipt Posting there is now the ability to have the system automatically generate a note for the customer. The defaults for this new feature are in System Controls on the Cash Receipts tab. When a note gets added, the note type will be set to “WRITE-OFF”. There are options to generate Note Alerts and to include the Write-off amount in the note. This feature works the same way that the notes feature for NSF checks currently works.

31. Work Orders. There have been multiple enhancements to Work Orders, they are as follows:

• A new option has been added to Work Orders Preferences that allows the checkbox, “Print Work Orders on Update” to automatically be checked when adding a Work Order.
• With the changes to the meter size field in the system, the “Statement” version of the Work Order form had to be modified slightly. The text “Meter” was removed from the Meter Install Date. Also for users that use the Crystal Reports version of the form, modifications may need to be made to the report to fit the entire meter size if it is included on the form.
• There is now the ability to set the default service type when adding a Work Order. The default for the service is setup in Security. On the User Information screen, there is a drop list for the Default Work Order Service that has options for each service type along with options for “First Service” and “No Default”. When the “First Service” option is selected, the adding of the Work Order will work the way that the system always has, it will default to the first service for the customer. When the “No Default” option is selected, no defaults will be selected. If a service type is selected and a customer does not have that service, the service will not be defaulted. For example, if Sewer is set as the default and a customer does not have a sewer service, the service information will not be defaulted. There is also a “Select First Active Service” checkbox on this screen. When it is selected, the Work Order program will default to the first active service for the customer.

32. Work Order Status Report. A Work Order Technician range has been added to Work Order Status Report. The technician has also been added to the report.

33. Generate Shut-Off Work Orders. When printing the Transaction Log of Created Work Orders, there is a new option to “Include Meter and Transponder Number on Transaction log”. When this box is checked, an additional line will print under each transaction listing each Meter Number and Transponder Number for the service on the Work Order.

34. Meter Maintenance. When entering a Meter Size for a meter, a drop-down list that will list all of the available meter services for the service type. If the meter is installed, it will only list meter sizes that are on the associated rate code. This will ensure that a valid meter size is entered for the meter. Previously when adding a meter, the size was defaulting to 1, now there are defaults in System Controls on the Service Information screen. Also, the meter size has been added to the selection grid in Meter Maintenance and the Meter Maintenance Search.

35. Inventory Items List. Totals have been added to the Inventory Items List. The totals are the total number of items, total quantity on hand and total quantity on order.

36. Installed Backflow Devices. There have been multiple enhancements to Installed Backflow Devices, they are as follow:

• A Post Test Results button has been added to the Installed Backflow Devices screen when Editing or Viewing an installed backflow device. Pressing the button will allow the user to post a test result for the installed backflow device that is currently being accessed. The button will only be enabled if the user has update permissions to Post Backflow Test Results.
• An E-Mail field has been added to the Contact Information in Installed Backflow Devices. When the contact information is set to Billing Address or Service Address, the E-Mail field will be populated with the Customer E-Mail from the Billing Information tab in Customer Maintenance. When the contact information is set to Owner Address, the E-Mail field will be populated with the Owner E-Mail from the Owner Information tab in Customer Maintenance. When the contact information is set to Other Address, the user will be able to key in an E-Mail address. The E-Mail field has also been added to the Installed Backflow Device List.
• The ability to create a new backflow device when adding or editing an installed backflow device has been added. The button to create a new backflow device will only be enabled if the user has update permissions to Backflow Devices.

37. CASS Certification Export Addresses. An option has been added to the CASS Certification Export Addresses to Exclude Final Billed Status Customers. When this option is selected, customers with a final billed status will be excluded from the export address list file even if the customer is still marked as CASS applicable.

38. Reports. The calculation of the available lines per page has been enhanced resulting in approximately 6 more lines per page on reports throughout the system. This will potentially reduce the number of pages that are required for reports.

39. Print to PDF. There is now the ability to print reports to PDF. There is a new Print to PDF option on the Print window that will be enabled for reports that can be printed directly to PDF. When the Print to PDF option is selected, the Printer Name, Printer Properties, Number of copies, Print to file, and Preview options will become disabled. The user will be prompted to specify the location and name of the PDF that will be created. By default, the PDF will be created in the CUBIC^® Documents default directory specified in System Controls and if no default directory is specified, it defaults to the Documents directory in the CUBIC^® data directory. Basically, any report that already has the Print to file or Preview options enabled on the Print window will also have the Print to PDF option enabled. The PrintScreen (Shift + F7) and PrintDesktop (Shift + F8) options also have the ability to save the image as a PDF.

40. Conversion. The main conversion screen has been changed to no longer maximize automatically so the user’s desktop is not completely blocked during the entire conversion process. The main conversion screen was also changed to give it a more modern appearance. The individual file conversion programs have also been changed with the way that the scrolling of the records being converted is displayed to try to minimize some of the flashing and blanking out of the count that was occurring.

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.