Simply Accounting

Upgrading to EFT 2009

Andrew C — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:03:00 GMT

Hello Everyone, I’ve been getting quite a lot of questions in Chat and on the phone about the process of upgrading EFT. Before I go into giving some tips and the process involved in this, I’ll give a brief explanation of the EFT program that comes with Simply Accounting.

EFT is a program that can be installed under Additional Products in the installation menu of Simply Accounting. It is used to help you direct deposit your Employee’s cheques instead of you having to print the cheques and giving it to your employee for him or her to cash at the bank. You would post your paycheques in Simply Accounting, close Simply, open EFT and generate the direct deposit file. Once the file is generated, you would upload this file to your bank, your bank will take it from there and direct deposit the funds into your employee’s bank account.

I've provided a link below on how to setup your EFT company if this is the first time you're using EFT:

How to Setup EFT

Now let’s move on to the process involved in upgrading EFT and I’ll give you some tips too. If you’re installing EFT for the first time, this won’t apply to you. However if you’ve used EFT in the past and you’re looking to upgrade to EFT 2009, please follow the process I’ve outlined below:

BEFORE YOU START:   Open your company file in EFT. Click on Company Profile and then Company Maintenance. Write down the EFT Working Directory location. Make a backup copy of the Working Directory by copying and pasting the Working Directory folder to the desktop or another location of your choice outside of the current Working Directory.

Make sure Simply 2009 is already installed and that you’re able to open your file in Simply 2009.

TIP: In Simply 2009, click on File then Properties. Write down the Company File name and the Location of your Simply file.

STEPS
1. Close Simply 2009. Install EFT 2009 under Additional Products in the Installation Menu of Simply Accounting.

2. Open EFT 2009. You’ll get prompted to open a company. Select a company and click Open.

3. Once your file is opened in EFT, click on Company Profile and then Company Maintenance. Click on the button with 3 dots next to the Simply Acct. Directory field. You’ll get an Open Window appear. Go to where your Simply Accounting file is stored as per the TIP above. Double click on the Sai file or select the Sai file and click Open.

4. Make sure the Version says 2009. If it doesn’t, change the version to 2009.

5. Click on the Save button

TIP: Click on Employee and then Employee Maintenance. Select an employee and then click on “modify” to confirm the employee’s banking information is there

TIP:If you have multiple companies in EFT, you can access them by clicking on File and then Open Company. You’ll get a message “Are you Finished With This Company?”. Click YES, and you’ll get a window listing your other companies. Follow the process above for the other company and any subsequent companies.

Year End Procedures

Andrew C — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:46:00 GMT

As you all know Kim has moved onto bigger and better things. Although she’ll still be with Sage, we’ll be sad to see her leave the Support Online Community. However I’m very excited to take over for her and hope I can fill her shoes. I’ll start with a brief introduction of myself.

My name is Andrew Chaye and I’ve been with Sage for a little over a year now. I have been providing technical support for Simply Accounting on the phone and in chat. I’m sure some of you have talked to me on the phone or in chat at some point in the past. I look forward to posting blogs, answering your questions in the forum and perhaps you’ll even talk to me in Chat! I look forward to working with Nemanja and hope to make the online community helpful and entertaining. I've provided links below on year end procedures that have been written in the past by Nemanja, Brian, and Kim respectively.

Calendar Year

Starting a New Year

Advancing to New Fiscal Year(this blog also applies to 2009 as well)

January Payroll Updates are ready for downloading

Alistair Ellis — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:23:00 GMT

The January 2009 payroll updates are ready for downloading. The update includes the tax updates and some changes to the program.

For our Quebec clients submitting RL-1s, you can now file Amended and Cancelled RL-1s electronically.

For those of you who are using Simply Accounting 2009, the project allocation report has been corrected to allow selection of asset, liability and equity accounts.

Simply Accounting 2009 now integrates with our online billing service. Simply email your invoice to your client using BillingBoss and enable your client to pay you online. Find out more at www.billingboss.com.

For additional changes be sure to read the product notification from the product update download page.

January 2009 Product Update

Nemanja — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:00:00 GMT

Exciting news, the January 2009 product update will be available for download as of today! The update includes the new tax tables, for all our SimplyCARE subscribers, as well as a few program improvements. For further information, please take a look at the readme.txt file included with the update.

You can download the update directly through the program. When the update becomes available, you will be prompted to update right at startup. You can click on Download Now to start the download. If you are not prompted at startup, open your company, go to Help-Check for Updates and click on the Check Now button. You can also download the update from our website, at the link below

http://www.simplyaccounting.com/support/productupdates/

When you initiate the download, you will be prompted to either Run or Save the downloaded file. We recommend that you choose Save and the run the updated after it’s downloaded. The advantage of saving it first is that you will now have the update stored on your computer. If you ever have to reinstall the program, you can just run the update again instead of having to download it first. You also avoid the risk of the computer trying to automatically run the update if your download is incomplete or interrupted.

When you try to install the update, you may get a message warning you that you have a pending reboot. If you have recently installed Windows updates, or updates for any other program, you may be required to reboot your computer. If you do receive this warning, we strongly advise you that you do reboot your computer before you install the Simply Accounting update. This will ensure that both the Windows updates and Simply Accounting updates get installed successfully.

The 2008 version users will be updating to Release D and the 2009 version users will be updating to Release B. You can check which release you are on by going to Help-About Simply Accounting.

Change in Community Moderation

Kim — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:20:00 GMT

Hello All,

It is with mixed emotions I announce my departure from the Simply Accounting Community in an official capacity. I am continuing my career with Sage and have accepted a challenging role on our Innovation team. In my new role I will continue to focus my attentions on the wonderful world of the internet and small business communities.

I am leaving this role in an official capacity but, of course, I'll continue to poke my head in from time to time and see what is going on and post some updates and information. I look forward to staying in touch! Many of you have provided me with some great feedback and interesting perspectives and I hope you continue to do so.

As for the community, I am pleased to introduce Andrew C as the new moderator. Andrew C is a phone support agent and recently joined the online chat team. He has found fast success in the support team, he has amazing technical knowledge, thorough trouble-shooting skills and a sparkling personality to boot! Andrew C and Nemanja will continue to blog and post in the forums. Feel free to contact them through the forums or send them a private message.

Happy Holidays everyone! I am sure I'll be chatting with you again

Calendar Year

Nemanja — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:23:00 GMT

We’re slowly but surely approaching yet another new year. Apart from Christmas presents and New Years parties, it also means the end of the payroll year. This week I would like to address a topic which invariably arises at this time. I will talk about posting transactions into the next calendar year and how advancing the calendar year affects your books.

Why is the Calendar year even an issue? Well, if you do payroll, you know the answer. Payroll is done based on the Calendar year, not your Fiscal year. On the other hand, transactions, of any kind, can not be posted into the next Calendar year unless you first advance the Calendar year. If you don’t do payroll in Simply Accounting, the solution is very easy; advance the Calendar year. You can do that by going to Maintenance and Start New Year. Make absolutely certain that you select the Calendar year! You don’t want to start a new Fiscal year by accident. Just to be on the safe side, make a backup before you attempt this.

What if you do process payroll in Simply Accounting? If you are not on a SimplyCARE Payroll plan, in other words, if you calculate your taxes manually, the impact will be minimal. The only change that you will notice, if you advance the Calendar year, is that the journal entries for payroll posted into the previous year, get posted on December 31^st. This is regardless of the date on the paycheque itself. This is because that year is officially closed and any entries made to a closed year are automatically treated as year end adjustments. Therefore, they are posted on the last day of the year. If you are on a SimplyCARE Payroll plan, you should be very careful when advancing the Calendar year. Automatic tax calculation will only work for the current calendar year. If, for example, on December 1^st 2008 you advance the Calendar year to 2009, the automatic calculation will no longer be available for paycheques posted in 2008.

Ideally, you should hold off advancing the Calendar year until all payroll for the current year is done. If you do need to advance the Calendar year before the last payroll of the year is done, there is a workaround you can use. Before you advance, save a copy of your file by going to File-Save As. Give this copy of your file a unique name in order to prevent confusion between the two copies. Once you have the copy, go back into your original file, advance the Calendar year, and keep working as normal. When it comes time to process the payroll, open the copy, which is still in the previous year, fill out the paycheque and take a look at the Taxes tab for the deductions. I’m sure you realize what we’re up to here; we’re using this copy for tax calculation. Write down the deduction amounts, go back to your original file, enter the deductions manually and post the paycheques!

Hopefully this has cleared up some confusion that the Calendar year presents!

TD1 forms for 2009

Brent Corner — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:40:00 GMT

The 2009 TD1 Personal Tax Credits forms are available for viewing and download on the CRA website at this link.

Both federal and provncial forms are available here. The claim amounts are required for the first payroll of 2009. Don't forget that Simply calculates the EI and CPP for you as long as you have are part of the SimplyCare with payroll support.

Simply Accounting 2009

Alistair Ellis — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:47:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

Simply Accounting 2009 hit the shelves end of October and we shipped out the last wave of updates this week. A lot of focus this year was on improving the product based on your feedback. We also added credit card integration and broadened the operating systems supported by Simply Accounting.

We used a different development process this year, and we feel that the product quality is much better than in previous years. The process is called Agile, and allows us to develop and test each change we do along the way, eliminating the overlooking of bugs that we may miss when doing all the development up front and trying to test every change after the development is completed. We also had a Controlled Release program. This program allows us to have a select group of partners and clients use the product on their actual day to day data, ensuring the product is ready to ship and helping address issues that do not occur in our office. As we all know, everyone's computer is set up differently and behaves differently. The Controlled Release allows us to have clients use the software on their systems and ensure the product is ready to ship. This is much different than a Beta version of the product, where bugs are expected to be found by clients. The Controlled Release is expected to run smoothly and hopefully have no or only minor issues arise.

We hope you will give Simply Accounting 2009 a whirl and be as happy with the results as we are.

Tough Times

Brent Corner — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:11:00 GMT

One of the most important responsibilities of the accounting department is controlling costs. It is no coincidence that many of us are quite careful with expenditures for own employers, clients as well as ourselves.

In the days ahead, we could be witnessing some of the toughest economic times that most of us have ever encountered. We all have ways that we save money in the office and I'd like to start a list of money-saving ideas that I have witnessed and some of which we practice.

- reuse mailing envelopes

- turn calculator rolls over

- for filing year-end documents, use 9 x 13 envelopes (new or used) for achiving in bankers boxes - much cheaper than file folders

- shake toner cartridges for laser printers - gets you a couple of hundred more copies; some of the newer cartridges won't allow you to do this though

- combine many errands which involve driving into one trip

- connect remotely to clients or to the office from home

Please feel free to post your own ideas here so that everyone can benefit.

Foreign currency

Nemanja — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:20:00 GMT

If I had to pick one feature that puts Simply Accounting above its competitors, it would be Foreign Currency. Accounting software, designed and developed in Canada, naturally recognizes the needs of the Canadian business climate and thus, foreign currency is fully integrated in Simply Accounting. At the end of the article you will find links to knowledgebase articles related to setting up Foreign Currency.

So how does it work? After setting up at least one foreign currency, you can create a foreign currency bank account. How do you designate an account as a particular currency? In the Class Options tab, when you select Bank you will see the Currency dropdown box. In it you will have your home currency and any foreign currencies you have set up. The next step is to create foreign currency customers and vendors.

In the customer/vendor records, go to the Options tab and set the currency. Now, when you use this customer/vendor in a transaction, your Accounts Payable/Receivable account will record the transaction in the currency set for the customer/vendor!

An every day reality with foreign currency is that the exchange rates change often. If you post an invoice today but receive the payment in a month, the currency rate would have certainly changed. So what happens in this situation? When you set up foreign currency, you’re asked to select an expense account in which to track exchange gain/loss. If there is any gain or loss because of the exchange rate fluctuation between the invoice and the payment, this account will automatically get affected by the difference!

Take a look at these articles for instructions on setting up Foreign Currency as well as solving common issues related to it.

How to set up a Foreign Currency

Canadian balance of Foreign Currency bank account is not correct

Currency denominations

Scalability

Kim — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:12:00 GMT

Continuing with November’s theme of new features I thought I’d share some of the very simple, yet beneficial features introduced in Simply Accounting 2009 Enterprise.

The MySql database is a more scalable database which means in the Enterprise version some of the previous caps have been expanded. Examples of this are

• 1000 Departments (up from 100)
• 1000 Price Lists (up from 100)
• 100 “Ship To” Addresses per Customer (up from 10)

Another focus of Enterprise is increased security feature. When Enterprise was introduced to the product line, one of the features introduced for security was Roles. Roles basically allow you to pre-define your user’s access to various areas of the database by grouping users with like jobs in to a role. (An example of this would be creating a role for “Sales Person” and then when you create new users that are sales people you assign them that role to streamline and make consistent the act of creating users with the same characteristics.) Now in 2009 Enterprise you can limit a user’s access to Account Reconciliation and Deposit Slips in the Accounts & General Ledger module and can also control exactly which Financial and Banking reports a user can view and edit, giving users access rights to only the reports they need. No need to explain the benefits of this functionality – some times you don’t want everyone seeing your business and now you can control this!

Reports Enhancements in the 2009 release

Nemanja — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:20:00 GMT

By now, you've probably noticed that for the 2009 release there is a heavier emphasis on improving existing features. In that spirit, we made a few enhancements to reports which were, again, based on your suggestions and requests!

Each report now has scalable columns which will auto-fit to the content of the column. If you double click on the edge of the column title, the column width will automatically adjust. The Deposit Slip detail report has been greatly improved when it comes to multi-currency. You will now have adjustable columns with the foreign amount and the exchange amount showing. The Project reports now show corrections and I know that many clients have asked for this one over the years!

If you have the Premium edition, or higher, you will have all of the above mentioned improvements in addition to a really cool enhancement to the Income Statement and Balance sheet. Take a look at these two reports and you will notice that you now have the ability to show/hide whole account groups and sub-groups! On the left edge of the report you will see little plus/minus button beside each account heading and sub-group account heading. I was pretty impressed when I saw this! A brand new report has also been added in the Forecast and Analysis section. You can now run a report which will show you your sales receipts grouped by the method of payment. I know that this was another common request I heard from clients.

Install the 2009 as soon as possible and take a look at these reports, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!

Sage Payment Solutions

Kim — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Sage is offering a new payment solution for our client base. Sage Payment Solutions is an affordable online credit card processing service. Merchants who accept credit cards can process these payments from within Simply Accounting.

Sage Payment Solutions is used for multiple products and has most recently been integrated with Simply Accounting. What exactly do I mean when I say integrated? You can process your invoice transactions in Simply and select a Pay By option. If that option is a credit card and your Sage Payment Solutions merchant ID and Key have been activated in the settings, when you process the invoice with that pay by method a screen allowing you to key in the credit card information for processing is enabled. Click the Process Credit Card button and record the payment and then post the invoice. Within the invoice screen, you have recorded both the invoice and all aspects of the payment.

I'm not a sales person and I don't have much of a pitch but I was an end user and Sage Payment Solutions is a competitive, secure solution for handling merchant services and I do know that most small businesses want to save time and want to save money which is why I'm writing about this service. If it's something you want to know more about visit the Sage Payment Solutions site.

The last thing I will say about Sage Payment Solutions at this point is think about the time and money and duplicate entry an integrated payment solution will save you. Explore your options and make an informed decision about what is best for your company.

Changes to the 2009 product lineup

Nemanja — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:20:00 GMT

Many of you have received your 2009 version of Simply Accounting in the mail and you’re probably eager to install it. To avoid an outbreak of puzzled looks and head-scratching, I’m going to talk about some important changes to our product line up in 2009.

Two editions, Entrepreneur and Simply Accounting by Sage now have new names. If you have been using the Simply Accounting by Sage 2008 (Basic in previous years) don’t be surprised when you get the 2009 Pro in the mail. Yes, that’s right, Simply Accounting by Sage/Basic in now called Pro! Just to avoid any confusion here, this is not the same as the Pro edition we had in 2007 and earlier versions. While they share the name, they are different products. If you had a Pro 2007, or earlier, you should be upgrading to Premium 2009. Entrepreneur 2008 has been renamed to First Step 2009.

Premium is still called Premium but it’s now sold in one user increments. This is a nice change as now you can buy the exact number of licenses that you require. With earlier versions, if you wanted to add one user you would have to purchase an additional 2-user license. In practical terms, this means that you will use a separate serial number and key code for each user. If you are on a SimplyCARE plan, you will receive your 2009 upgrade in the mail. In the package, you will also find one letter, per each user, containing a serial number and a key code. If you had a 2-User Premium, for example, you will get two letters with two different serial numbers and key codes. Enterprise users are not affected by this. It’s still sold as a 5-User or 10-User edition and you will still install each user with the same serial number and key code.

To sum up the major changes, Simply Accounting by Sage 2008 is Pro 2009, Entrepreneur 2008 is First Step 2009 and Premium 2009 is sold in one user increments with each user having a unique serial number and key code.

For additional information regarding the changes to the 2009 line up, click on the link below.

http://www.simplyaccounting.com/products/faq/

Emailing Simply Forms

Kim — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:49:00 GMT

In Simply Accounting 2009 versions it is now possible to customize a Simply Form for emailing! If you use a custom Simply Form for printing purposes and a generic template for emailing, you can now change the email form type to the custom Simply Form.

This change is going to make form customization much easier for users and will allow you to customize one simply form for use with printing and emailing. You simply select the same custom form in both the print and email form field.

In the past you needed to use Crystal Reports to customize an email form template. Although you no longer need to do that some users have customized Crystal forms that suit their company’s needs and it is perfectly acceptable to continue using those forms. Crystal Reports (.rpt) allows for some more advanced customization also, so if the simply form (.sfm) isn’t meeting your needs explore the Partner page for a business partner who can assist you with a crystal customization. (We have some partners here in the forum who are experts at customization!)

Basically, you need to indicate that you are using a Custom Form, select the Custom Simply Form option, set the Form type to User-Defined and then do one of the following:

a) If you have already customized a sfm form for printing, click the Browse button and find that customized form and choose “Open” to set the form in the form path.
b) If you have NOT customized the form, click “Customize Form”, choose to customize the form from a template, select the template, make the modifications in the form designer and save the form with a name that is specific to you. Proceed to option A to select this form type for emailing purposes.

New Payroll features in Simply Accounting 2009

Nemanja — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:36:00 GMT

You asked for it, you got it!

Practically all of the new features in the payroll module have come from suggestions made by you, our clients. Most improvements center around reports. We have added a new report and enhanced some existing ones; I’ll go into more detail on these later. You now also have the ability to email Direct Deposit stubs to your employees. If you’re in Quebec, you’ll be happy to hear that we added the Additional Quebec tax field to the Taxes tab of the employee record. This means that you can now deduct additional Quebec tax just as you were able to deduct additional Federal tax.

The biggest improvement to the payroll reports, in my humble opinion, is the addition of the Pensionable and Insurable Earnings Report (PIER). This is the report that the Canada Revenue Agency uses to check if your CPP and EI deductions for the year were correct. The report is only available for clients who are on a payroll plan. Also, keep in mind that you should only be running it at the very end of the year when you’re ready to issue T4s. Since the report, and the calculation, is based on the number of pay periods, the report will only be useful when you have processed every pay period for that year. For more information on the PIER report, click on the following link to the CRA website:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/pyrll/clcltng/cpp-rpc/pr-eng.html

We have also made your life a little easier when it comes to filling out the numerous government forms, which make our life so interesting come year end. The positions of the CPP and EI amounts have been switched around in order to match the formatting of the government forms, such as the PD7A remittance form. Speaking of the PD7A, we have added the gross Taxable Payroll amount to the Payroll Remittance report. Last but not least, the system defined benefits field (Federal and Quebec) has been added to the Employee Detail report.

That’s it for Payroll but stay tuned for upcoming blogs on other, pretty cool, new features.

Auto Registration

Kim — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Let's talk processes.

Sometimes as a business you have to look at your processes and some times that means taking a critical look at the way you are getting things done. Can you do it better? Can it be easier? Sounds logical enough but sometimes it's tough to see the forest through the trees (picture me at this moment going a little cross eyed and you'll establish the visual I speak of.)

In the 2009 Simply Accounting release one of the most basic of processes was looked at, picked apart and changed - for the better! I'm talking about the registration process.

I know - at this point you're all thinking Kim has "lost it" if she expects cheers for revealing such a minor, itty-bitty change and you're right that this is a minor change (wrong about the other!) Basically we looked at call triggers to the support centre last January and as a whole I think the entire Simply family was stunned to learn that more than 10 percent of the calls Support took were surrounding registration and it was decided right then and there that the registration process had to change to save our clients time.

When SimplyCARE clients receive their 2009 product they will also receive a letter revealing their serial number and their keycode and their payroll ID. This means you won't need to go online or call our registration line and listen to our hold music during the January tax season. Go ahead and activate! Better still - if you don't have that little letter handy that I just spoke of when you go to activate, if you are a SimplyCARE client just click the "Retrieve Key Code" button when activating and the fields will self populate for you. It's been made that simple!

For new clients who purchase at retail the self populate feature is obviously not going to work for you as we have no way of pre-registering your product but you can click the register online link and register that way. I'm providing the link at the bottom of this blog as well.

So that's it. A tiny little modification that you won't think of 2 minutes after it's done but hopefully it will save you some of your valuable time and ease the installation process for you.

Registration for new clients

Controlled Release

Kim — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:00:00 GMT

As Nemanja promised, I am here to tell you a bit about one of the new features in Simply Accounting 2009… sort of. Controlled Release isn’t a tangible feature so you won’t notice it in the product. In fact, if we did our job right, the only reason you’d know anything about it at all is because I’m here telling you about it right now.

Controlled Release is a new process implemented by our Product Release team. The concept is actually pretty simple. The idea? Take Simply Accounting out of the QA laboratory and in to the real world. And it doesn’t stop there! The second part of this progression required clients to upgrade their actual live databases to the 2009 software version and operate their businesses for weeks in the new version.

We knew that we were asking a lot of the “test group” that volunteered to work with us and so for the 12 business partners and nearly 50 end users who installed Simply Accounting 2009 and upgraded their real databases we guaranteed an all hands on deck experience. Members and managers of every department were involved in the process from beginning to end. Essentially the release team observed and collected feedback on every part of the upgrading process. Every contact from a controlled release participant was meticulously documented - every comment, observation or issue noted. Every single day for the duration of the 4 week process the Release Managers would meet and share and discuss everything. The best part – change came as a result of this release group! Issues were found and reported weeks before the product was scheduled for release and subsequently the Simply Accounting 2009 product being shipped to SimplyCARE customers and being stocked on store shelves was tweaked and polished as a result.

What does this mean? That Simply Accounting 2009 went through its first update before it was ever released. What does this mean for you? That if you belong to the “Let’s wait until January to upgrade club” it may be time to reconsider. Everyone knows what happens to our call centre during tax season (I know first hand and let me tell you the hold time ain’t pretty) so avoid the madness and do the upgrade early. Beat the rush!

This very simple change is going to reinvent the release process of Simply. In fact, next release the Operations team is going to recruit as many as 200 participants over a 6 week span and as a result, I suspect we will see a change in both the quality of the product and the experience of our end users – both for the better!

Oh - our Controlled Release video is now on You Tube so check it out!

The Learning Centre

Nemanja — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:43:00 GMT

It’s an exciting time of the year for us here at Simply Accounting, the 2009 version has been released and I personally believe that it’s our best release to date! Over the next couple of months, Kim and I will introduce you to the great new features of the 2009 version and we’ll give you some tips and tricks on installation, conversion and general year end procedures.

Today I’m going to talk about the improved learning Centre feature in the 2009. Some of you might be aware that the earlier versions had the Learning Centre in the Help menu. In the 2009, the Learning Centre is one of the modules on the left side of the Enhanced View. The biggest improvement, in my biased opinion, is its integration with the online community. This is very exciting! You will now be able to read the blogs and forum posts right inside your Simply Accounting. How cool is that!? Both the blogs and the forum posts are updated in real time (provided you’re connected to the internet) so you’ll never miss a thing!

The next great new feature of the Learning Centre is the Frequently Asked Questions section. Here you’ll find the top ten issues, or questions, that come in to the support center. This section will be updated regularly so you’ll always be on top of what’s happening and what kind of issues the other users are experiencing. If you ever experience a problem, check here and hopefully you will be able to find a solution.

Other features of the Learning Centre include a section with tutorials, which range from setting up a new company to a guide on payroll and reporting. You will also find an updated listing of classroom courses, and a section with links to all of our support options. Keep in mind that you’ll have to be connected to the internet in order for the content of the Learning Centre to be updated. If you’re on a dial-up connection, the content will get updated whenever you connect to the internet.

So go ahead, install the 2009 as soon as you can and try out the new Learning Centre!

2009 Release

Brent Corner — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:20:00 GMT

Over the past few months, I have participated in the Beta testing of the 2009 version. During September we took part in the 2009 Controlled Release along with approximately 50 other Simply Partners and clients. During this testing, participants had their own forum in which no punches were pulled. Any and all problems were seen by all.

Upgrading from 2008 is very smooth; in fact our clients that took part in the Controlled Release did their own upgrades. Starting the program does take longer but once work begins in Simply, everything we tested is faster. I ran side-by-side tests on identical machines and a large database and performance was much better in many reporting and posting areas over the 2008 version. New features of each version, can be found at this link.

The way I see it, this release has to be the best ever as far as readiness goes - many of the other testers stated this also. There are not a lot of new gimmicky features in 2009. Simply appears to have focused on making the program work better.

My favourite new features in the 2009 version are automatic activation (all versions), emailing of direct deposit slips (Pro and higher) and the ability to hide corrections in the Project reports.

Everyone should take the time to read the Upgrade FAQs on the Products page to avoid confusion when upgrading from 2007 versions of Basic and Pro as well as 2008 Basic - Simply has realigned some of the names of the product line to avoid confusion on the retail shelf.

After the growing pains of the 2008 versions, I feel confident that the 2009 is going be an easy transition. I will certainly be migrating our clients to it over the next couple of months.

Finding your data

Nemanja — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:40:00 GMT

Have you ever lost your data file? Did you forget where you saved those backups? Maybe you never even knew where your data got saved. Well let me show you how to find it!

I'll begin by saying that it’s very important to know where your data is stored. I know this sounds obvious but a surprising number of clients don’t. If you’re reading this and thinking oh no, he’s talking about me, don’t panic, I’ll show you how to find it. Open your company and go to File-Properties. The Location filed will give you the path to where the file is. You may want to write this down. In the future, if you ever lose the file, you’ll know where to look for it.

Do you know where your backups are being saved? Click on File-Backup and take a look at the Location field, it will show you where your last backup was saved and it’s a good bet that they are all there. If you have the automatic backup feature turned on, go to Setup-Settings-Company-Backup. To the left of the Browse button you will see a path to where the automatic backups get saved. Again, there is no harm in writing these paths down in case you need to restore a backup at a later time and you’re not sure where they all are.

Now let’s see what we can do if you don’t know where your file is. Now, obviously, you can’t go to File-Properties to see the location since you can’t open it to begin with. The quickest way to find it is to use the Windows Search feature. Click on the Start button in the bottom right of your screen and select Search. This is where Vista and XP differ so I’ll try walking you through both.

· With XP, click on All Files and Folders on the left side and then, in the very first search field, type in .SDB if your looking for a 2007 or older database and .SAI if you’re looking for a 2008 or newer database. If you’re looking for a backup file, type in .CAB.

· In Vista, you can try searching for these same extensions but it’s possible that it may hide them from you. If nothing comes up initially, select the Advanced Search option. In the Location field select Everywhere and check the box in the bottom left titled “Include non-indexed, hidden and system files”. This should now show every file with those extensions.

Once you have the search results you will also see the path to where the files are. Keep in mind that other programs may use files with these same extensions so, for example, every .cab file that comes up in the search window may not necessarily be a Simply Accounting backup. The search results window should also show you the Date Modified column at the far right. These dates will tell you when this file was last accesses or, in the case of backups, when it was created.

In a perfect world you’ll never lose your files or have to restore a backup but if you do this article will hopefully help you find them.

P.S.

I apologize if I bored you to death with this blog, I promise that the next will be at least a little bit more entertaining.

My Outlook for getting things done

Brent Corner — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:07:00 GMT

I'd like to talk about a program that I just cannot live without - Microsoft Outlook^®. I'm not referring to Outlook Express^® but the full version of Outlook^® that comes with Microsoft Office^®.

For those of you who are not familiar with it, Outlook^® is not just an email program, its a Personal Information Manager. It can serve as your calendar, contact and task manager as well as a speed dialer. Simply Accounting will synchronize basic contact info with Outlook^® so you can set up a vendor or customer contact once in Simply and check off the Synchronize with Microsoft Outlook^® box in the Option tab. When you open Outlook^® you can add other notes and details to the contact info.

If you have a Smartphone or a Blackberry, you can synch it with your Outlook^®. When you're away from the office and a client gives you new number or address change, you can enter it into your mobile device and it will eventually find its way back to Simply when you synch back at the office.

My favourite feature in Outlook is the ability to journalize phone calls and conversations. Install a fax modem ($30) on your computer and you can use Outlook^® as the ultimate speed dialer. At your fingertips you have the hundreds of numbers that are in your contact list - this is much better that a typical phone with a hundred numbers. When you dial out to a contact, Outlook^® will prompt you to open a Journal. You can then make permanent notes about the conversation.

The most important use that I make of Outlook^® is its abiltiy to help me stay organized. I use the Calendar to organize all appointments as well as all working and personal time. Details of meetings, what you plan to say, what was said, work completed, etc. can all be stored in the Calendar appointments. Months later, you can recall notes by doing a search by keyword. The Calendar can also synch with your Smartphone or Blackberry. Another great management tool for professionals that want to monitor their percentage of billable time is the ability to colour code Calendar items. Use the coloured Label option and set all billable time to one colour - at a quick glance of a 'weekly' view, you can see just how productive that you really were.

I still see lots of people still shuffling paper to stay organize d while this great organizer resides on their desktops. So if you're looking for an easy-to-use tool that will help you structure your life both at work and home I suggest that you take a look at Outlook^®.

If you would like to share ways that you use Outlook^® or other personal information managers, let's hear about it.

Project Allocation

Kim — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:25:00 GMT

Hello Everyone,

This blog is going to be short and sweet and to the point. Let’s face it, I can be long winded so let’s see what I can get done in 3 sentences or less.

If you are trying to allocate to a Project in any journal and the Allocation check mark button is greyed out, don’t panic! It’s not your Project. Open up the account in the transaction and make sure there is a check mark in the Allow Project Allocation field in the Account tab of the General Ledger Record in your chart of accounts.

Phew! I do believe that was three sentences. I wanted to blog that this week as I’ve had it come up when chatting with clients recently and thought I’d be proactive and spread the word.

Oh – and to you Partners attending the Vancouver Partnership Conference…. I’ll see you in two weeks!

A common problem with Bank Reconcilliation

Nemanja — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:51:00 GMT

Hello Everyone!

Well the Olympics are over and the kids are back in school so it’s time for us grownups to get back to work. Our support center gets numerous calls, almost every day, regarding bank reconciliation issues. Today I’m going to talk about one common problem users have and how it can be avoided.

Have you ever started your current months bank reconciliation and - *poof* - a transaction that you cleared in a previous reconciliation is back as outstanding? You then try to clear it again but it creates a Discrepancy and/or an Unresolved amount? Let’s shed some light as to why this transaction suddenly came back. Well it’s not really a mystery - it’s been adjusted. As a rule of thumb, we shouldn’t be adjusting transactions that we already cleared in a reconciliation.

“Sure Nemanja, that’s easy for you to say but what if I made a mistake?”

Good question, imaginary client! If the transaction was initially entered with an incorrect amount, you would not have been able to post your reconciliation in the first place. It wouldn’t add up and you would have a Discrepancy or an Unresolved amount.

“The amount was correct Nemanja but I posted it to the wrong revenue/expense account, what do I do now!?”

Now this does happen from time to time and it would warrant an adjustment. The trick is not to involve the bank account. How do we do this? A General Journal transaction! Just debit/credit the incorrect account and post the other side of the entry to the correct account. Now the General Ledger looks goods and your bank reconciliation will not have any problems.

“This is all great advice but where were you last week when I made the adjustment and now the transaction’s showing in my current bank reconciliation when it shouldn’t? What do I do now?”

If you do have the problem then, unfortunately, you will have to reset your bank reconciliation.

CLICK HERE to check out Kim’s blog on resetting the bank reconciliation module.

CLICK HERE for step by step instructions on resetting.

It's in the Stars...and the Forum!

Kim — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:28:00 GMT

Hopefully you have all had an enjoyable summer and indulged in a little rest and relaxation. Based on some of the Vacation Pay threads in the forum I’m hopeful most of you managed to take a much needed holiday this summer.

My topic this week is going to be slightly out of the ordinary as I’m not going to write about Simply Accounting. Instead I thought I’d talk a little bit about some Forum features we can do (or continue doing) to keep the information flowing between all of us who use the Community Forum on a regular basis or who pop in from time to time.

The first thing I want to draw everyone’s attention to is the rating system on a thread. When you’re logged in to the Forum you can open any thread and indicate a rating from one star to five stars. If you find the thread useful or candid and like (even if you don’t necessarily agree with) the content of the thread go ahead and give it a high rating. If you find the information wasn’t quite what you were looking for or didn’t answer your question, give it a lower rating. Ultimately this system will average out the amount of votes and give the thread an overall rating.

This system will show us Forum Moderators what topics are popular so we can work on developing some web casts and blogs to bring to the forum pertaining to some of the threads based on your feedback. It’s also helpful for someone searching threads to see if the content generated a buzz or got the job done. So go ahead and start voting!!

The other thing I wanted to point out for some of you who are new(er) to the forum is the Favorites button. If there is a thread that you want to keep your eye on or a particular user whose posts you always find useful, honest or educational go ahead and add them to your Favorites. Just click the Favorites button and add the poster as your friend or add the post as your Favorite. If the thread or poster is active in the forum, you will be notified via email. It’s that simple to watch what is happening in the forum. And don’t worry, it’s not a lifetime commitment. If at any point you change your mind about your Favorites (and let’s face it, we all do) it’s the same process to inactivate the option, just click the Favorites button and choose to remove the Favorite.

And lastly, we all like to find what we’re looking for so remember to tag your threads! I’m awful at remembering this but promise to do a better job of it going forward (you are all my witnesses!)

Thank you all again for all the information and questions you bring to the forum. I promise to return with a more Simply Accounting related blog very soon.