This new analysis function produces totals of PI WIP activity recorded to each of the G/L Revenue Accounts.  Sub-Totals may also be generated for the following combinations:

The totals may be displayed to an inquiry grid screen, output to a report, or exported to spreadsheets, tab-delimited, or CSV data files.  The following totals are presented:

The WIP detail that contribute to each data-set may also be exported to spreadsheet.  The analysis may be run for a calendar year, calendar month, or user specified date range. (Oct 21-2014)

Two new functions has been introduced into the PI system to manage the process of entering timesheet information from employee emails.

First, there is a new operation that for each employee will generate an Excel spreadsheet that contains the potential activity that employee would need to record as WIP activity.  These spreadsheets are automatically emailed, by the system, to each employee  to be filled in.  The spreadsheet would be edited, and emailed back.

The second new operation will read a designated Outlook inbox for those emails from employees sending back their completed timesheet spreadsheets as attachments.  The emails are processed and the spreadsheets read to record their timesheets into the PI system. (May 10-2014)

A new function has been introduced into the P/I system.   The E-Billing Wizard is a program that will generated EDI Invoicing files from Invoices that were generated from other software packages.   The invoice information is provided as a text CSV file that contains the detail that was used to generated the invoice.  The detail is loaded into the PI system, an invoice history record is written, and the appropriate EDI file is created ready to be transmitted to the customers' BtoB services.   (April 15-2014)

The following EDI Invoice format types are supported:

A Project Dashboard has been introduced to the P/I system.  Utilizing a Windows tree display, projects may be listed by Code, Description, or grouped by Customer, Project Manager, Project Leader, Location or Invoice Layout.  When a given Project is selected, assorted related information may be displayed in  the following tabbed-sub-screens:

For the totaling screens a date range filter may be specified (March-10-2014)

Once P/I invoices are generated, they are presented in the Invoice processing grid.  When selecting a specific invoice, and right-clicking to have the pop-up menu presented, new functions are available.  You may now have a "Proforma" copy of the invoice printed, and optionally emailed.  Once printed, it's status is set as "Proforma", and it will remain until the "Approve Proforma Invoice" pop-up menu function is executed. (Apr-12-2013)

The P/I system now provides support for the generation of "On-Demand" Correction of Invoices. With On-Demand Invoicing, billable activity is generated immediately after a customer's interaction with a web-site or telephone sales agent.  These charges are then grouped as a packet of information in a file, and delivered to an accounting server to be deposited to a pre-designated directory.  If after either a system generated Invoice, or an On-Demand Invoice has been produced, it is discovered that a change needs to be made, the On-Demand Service routine will now be able to handle a request to Re-Generate an Invoice.  In this case, the Invoice Number of the original Invoice is passed in the file name.  For the original Invoice, a Credit is generated reversing all it's charges and G/L distributions; and the new revised information is used generate a totally new Invoice. (Nov-15-2012)

When generating EDI Invoices for a Project having different charges with different bill codes, the system will create a separate Invoice for each bill code.  For EDI Invoices, if the WIP item value is ZERO, then it is automatically written off, and not invoiced.  In the case where all the charges with the same bill code have ZERO value, the associated invoice is not generated.  In this instance, any subsequent WIP items not yet invoiced, were not being invoiced at all.  The problem has been identified and fixed.   (Nov-02-2012)

The function used to degenerate Invoices has been revised to provide an enhanced message to the operator to verify that De-Generation is supposed to be executed.   (Oct-08-2012)

The Date-Last-Used field associated to the Task will now be output when Exporting Task information. (Sept-28-2012)

The Invoice Layout associated to the Project will now be input when Importing Project information. (Sept-28-2012)

A new field has been introduced to the Recap Charges record.  The "Court Information" field is used to hold information relating to charges associated to customers that are legal firms.  This new field is dealt with in the User Interface functions, the General WIP Transactions Entry (and related spreadsheet interface), and Invoice generation. When loading charges from spreadsheet as General WIP transactions, this new field must be available in column AK.  Please ensure your applicable spreadsheets are revised accordingly.   (Sept-21-2012)

From the Historic Invoices Inquiry function, the function to apply credits to posted invoices has been enhanced as follows:

Once Invoices are posted to an A/R Sales Batch, all applicable reversing G/L Distributions are generated for the Credit.   (Sept-21-2012)

A new function has been introduced available within the "Invoice Processing" drop-down menu.  "Launch Auto-Invoicing Wizard" is a routine that when executed, will start up a process in a new window that will be used to automatically execute the Invoicing Wizard.  You may specify that it is to execute every 1/2 hour, hourly, or every 2 or 4 hours.  A status sub-screen is displayed showing when the next and previous executions have occurred.  The option also exists to have the process automatically hibernate overnight.

In order to use this new function, you MUST first add a new User Logon Profile named AUTOWIZARD, (using the System Maintenance's "User Logon Profile" maintenance function).   You must also, add a new variable to the runtime Configuration file named AUTO_WIZARD_AUDITLOG_PATH  which specifies the full path to the directory/folder that an audit log file, for the process, is to be written.   (Sept-21-2012)

The Professional Invoicing system has been enhanced to provide the ability to identify and record the "Customer Service Reps", (CSR), that are associated to work-in-progress charges.   You may specify 2 different CSRs; one for the Customer and one for the individual WIP item.  (The one for the Customer is assumed to be the "Team Leader".   These CSR are set up in the Accounts Receivable system using one of the user defined Demographic Codes.  The CSRs are specified as new fields in each of the applicable interface functions, and may be entered using the General Work-In-Progress or Timesheet Entry applications.   When invoices are printed, the description associated to the Client CSR, (assumed to be name and phone #), will be printed in the footer of client's invoices.   (July 28-2012)

From the Historic Invoice Inquiry function, when a given invoice is selected to be reprinted, if that invoice is associated to a 3rd party billed client, both the client's invoice is printed, and the 3rd party invoice is printed too. (July 19-2012)

A new EDI Invoice type has been introduced.  Invoices may now be generated as Visa Credit Card charges using the Chase Paymentech Orbital Gateway Batch XML Interface.  The appropriate batch file is produced to be submitted.  Also, the Paymentech "Response" file is processed to identify rejected requests.     (July-16-2012)

Invoices will now be generated and output with assorted formatting features.  These include, and limited to, the following:

(June-20-2012)

The Invoicing Wizard routine calls the "General WIP Interface", to validate and load charges that are to be interfaced into the system.  The Wizard routine has been revised to abandon the interface if the "General WIP Interface" detected an attempt to re-load a given set of files.  The appropriate message is displayed to the status screen, and is output to the exception report. (May-28-2012)

When user WIP data is interfaced as "General WIP Transactions", a log file will now be kept to record information associated to the file being interfaced.  If the operator attempts to repeat the interface on a particular file, the log file will be examined to see if it had already been loaded or not.  A message will be displayed, and the operator will have the option to re-load it.  (When the interface is called from the Invoicing Wizard, if a file has already been loaded, then an error will be returned to the Invoicing Wizard, and the file will not be loaded). (May-28-2012)

The Recap Export has been revised to now allow for over 65,000 charges to be exported.  If output to Office 2003 Excel workbooks, a 2nd worksheet will be created.  As well, The Rate, # of Units and Fee columns of the spreadsheet will be correctly formatted as $ amounts, or not. (May-28-2012)

A new Invoice Layout Type "O" has been introduced.  This layout is similar to the Type "L" layouts, except all charges reported on a single invoice are for the same Recap Order Number.  As well, up to 20 characters of each of the 8 possible Recap Reference fields will be printed in the header of the invoice; and any taxes that are computed will be listed with each charge.  The Invoice Layout Maintenance function has been revised accordingly.   This Invoice Layout will be used for all On-Demand Invoice requests. (May-18-2012)

The Invoice Layout Maintenance function has been revised to provide a new property for those layouts that have the property set to Generate a Separate Document for each Invoice.  This new property named MS Word Template Override, is used to specify the name of the MS Word template that is to be applied when the invoice is printed as an MS Word or PDF document.   (May-15-2012)

Invoices produced for Projects defined with Type "L" Invoice Layouts have been totally revised.  As well, a new Invoice Layout "F" has been defined.  These invoices have been revised to take advantage of the new formatting capabilities when outputting them as MS Word, or PDF documents.  Type "F" invoices, (for Financial Institutions), group charges by Bill-Code, and then again by the WIP Reference, (for the Debtor name).  Bill Code totals, and Debtor sub-totals are printed.  Type "L" invoices are similar to Type "F" invoices, except all charges for a given Bill Code are generated on a separate invoice.

For both these types of invoices, the MS Word documents are now output with a variety of formatting options.  These include the following:

Note that, these invoice require the use of a new MS Word Template which must be available to each user who generates invoices. (May 15-2012)

The definitions of, and invoice layouts for these types of invoices have been removed from the system.  The Invoicing routines have also been revised accordingly. If any layout records defined for these types are still on file, they should be deleted.   (May-02-2012)

A number of functions, once initiated, may now be cancelled, prior to completion.  This is accomplished by clicking on the "Cancel" button presented on the progress bar screen.  The following functions may be cancelled:

In each case, the process will stop processing once a given function for a given transaction is completely finished. (April-04-2012)

For those invoices generated as EDI PDF type invoices with Recap Reports that are to be subsequent emailing to respective customers using "After Hours" function, new functionality has been introduced.  You will now be able to have these invoices re-emailed.  When the "Email EDI Gen'ed PDF Invoices" function is selected, a screen will now be presented on which you may set the option to Repeat the email process for a range of Invoice number. For a given invoice to be re-emailed with it's recap report, it must have already been generated in the past, and reside as a PDF in the directory folder associated to the EDI/XML Specifications Code.   (April-04-2012)

The Invoice Posting function typically should be executed when no other users are executing a function that opens, or has access to, the active Invoice file.  Previously, when Invoices were posted, the Invoice file was opened exclusively, and all other users were locked out from any function that attempted to open it.  Now, a software controlled locking mechanism has been introduced.  A record in the A/R Passing file is now used to monitor how many users are executing any functions that open the Invoice file.   That record also has a flag that gets set to indicate that the Invoice file is open by the Invoice Posting function.  Now when the Invoice Posting function is selected, if any other users have the Invoice file open, a message will be displayed to the operator, and they may choose to proceed with the posting, or not.  Also, if while the Posting function is executing, if any of the other functions that open the Invoice file is selected, that operator will be informed and have the option to continue or not.

Abandoning the system's file exclusive locking mechanism was necessary in order to allow for "On-Demand" Invoicing to continue during the times when normal daily Wizard Invoicing and "Month-End" Invoicing was executing. (March-07-2012)

When EDI Invoices are output, the system is now able to handle up to 12 different EDI Invoice Control Types at a time.  Previously, only 10 different sets could be output when Invoices were printed.

Also, previously when EDI invoices were generated to be automatically emailed, the system assumed that recipient email addressed were always available. (Typically from the Customer master record's profile).  The system has been enhanced so that if no email address is provided, or is blank, then the invoice will be skipped from being processed.  If this is the case, a message will be displayed accordingly. (March-02-2012)

The function to have Invoices reprinted has been enhanced to offer the option to print ONLY those Invoices that are considered "Overdue".   When selecting to print overdue invoices, the operator may choose to select only those invoices for customers with a specified Terms Code.  As well, a filter is offered allowing selection of only those invoices that are 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120 days overdue, based on either the Invoice Date or the Due Date.  An new additional option to have the invoices automatically emailed to those customers with email addresses has also been introduced.

The body of the email message is loaded from a file named OverDue_Invoice_EmailMessage.TXT that must be located in the directory named Email-Templates located in each Company System's designated reports directory. This text file may be either a plain ASCII text, or an HTML file and contain up to 8192 characters. (Feb-12-2012)

When adding a new Project, if the associated invoices were to be generated as one of the defined EDI layouts, it was necessary to finish the add process first, and then select to Modify the Project to enter the EDI properties.  Now, the EDI properties may be entered when the Project is added. (Feb-15-2012)

The "Archive" function has been enhanced to now read through the Historic Invoices file using the new Invoice History Date key.  As a result, only those invoices that are to be archived are processed.  Previously, all record in the Invoice History file were being read.   (Feb-14-2012)

From the Historic Invoices Inquiry function grid screen, you may now select to have invoices displayed sorted by Invoice Date. (Feb-14-2012)

A new control property has been introduced to the EDI Specifications Maintenance screen.  Labeled as "Automatically Suppress and Write-off ZERO value WIP items", is a check-box that when set will not include any WIP items that have a ZERO value in those EDI formats listing detail charges.  As well, when these ZERO value items are encountered, they will automatically be flagged as "Written-Off" WIP items. (Feb-09-2012)

A new type of EDI Invoice format has been introduced.  Custom "Character-Delimited" Text EDI invoices are now supported.  These are ASCII text files that contain invoicing information in fields that are separated by different characters. (Including, <,>, <~> and the <|> characters.)  The different formats available are customized for specific customer's requirements. (Feb-08-2012)

The system now supports a number of variations to the standard LEDES 98B Format of invoices.  The existing LEDES 98B EDI Control Properties has been revised with a new field to indicate the given company to which the unique settings and values are to be applied to.  The invoicing routines have been revised as required. (Feb-06-2012)

The system now supports the generation of Orbital Gateway Batch XML Credit Card charges for submission to Paymentech for invoices generated from PI.  A new EDI Control Type with applicable properties screen has been introduced to the EDI Control Settings Maintenance routine.  The invoicing routines, and the Paymentech Response Reconciliation routine, have both been revised as required. (Jan-27-2012)

The system now supports the generation of LEDES2000 XML invoices.  A new EDI Control Type with applicable properties screen has been introduced to the EDI Control Settings Maintenance routine. The invoicing routines have been revised as required. (Jan-18-2012)

The generation of the EDI PDF type invoices with Recap Reports, and subsequent emailing to respective customers, has been enhanced.  As an option associated to the EDI Specifications, you may now have the production of these invoices broken into two steps.  If two-steps is selected, as the 1st step, when these invoices are "Printed" only the PDF Invoice document is built.  The 2nd step, launched by a Invoice Processing sub-menu item, will have each invoice's corresponding Recap Report generated, and both the Invoice and the Recap Report is emailed to the customer.  Using this two-step method, or which has The Generation of Recap Reports and subsequent emailing "Performed as a Separate After Hours" Operation, will significantly reduce the time required to generate invoices at the end of the month. (Jan-16-2012)

The P/I system for the past few years has provided an Invoicing Wizard application that automatically inputs user interface data and automatically generates and prints invoices; and posts them to the Accounts Receivable system.  The invoices were generated as a set that was printed.  The process has been enhanced to now provide the option to select the type of invoice to be generated.  Invoices may still be generated as a set and printed, but as well, they may now be generated as individual MS Word or PDF documents, and automatically emailed to each customer.  New fields associated to the options for generating invoices have been introduced to the Invoice Wizard Codes Maintenance function screen. (Dec-09-2011)

The P/I system now provides support for the generation of "On-Demand" Invoices. With On-Demand Invoicing, billable activity is generated immediately after a customer's interaction with a web-site or telephone sales agent.  These charges are then grouped as a packet of information in a file, and delivered to an accounting server to be deposited to a pre-designated directory.  The Series 5 Professional Invoicing system's On-Demand Servicing function detects the presence of this file, reads the data, generates the invoice, delivers it back to the requesting agent or system, and posts it into the Accounts Receivable system.  The process is accomplished typically all in a time-frame of less than 10 seconds.

On Demand Control Sets are used to define the options associated to these invoicing related operations.  Each On Demand Control Set could be established to represent a unique set of options perhaps representing charges accumulated for different branch offices, geographic regions, or sales agents.  Invoices associated to each Control Set is then dealt with separately, having their accumulated activity loaded, billed, invoices generated, and moved to A/R.   (Dec-09-2011)

The export function has been revised.  A new column, "F",  has been introduced that contains a flag indicating that the charge is either a "Service" or a "Disbursement".  All columns to the right have been shifted accordingly.   (Dec-06-2011)

In the PI menu-bar, the Operations drop-down menu set has been divided into two drop-down menus.  All the menu items relating to the generation and processing of invoices has been moved to a new menu-bar set titled Invoice Processing.  As a result user access rights to each of the menu items that previously were associated to the Operations drop-down menu will have to be reset for each user having access to PI. (Nov-04-2011)

A new field has been introduced to the P/I system Work-In-Progress record.  It is used to record where the WIP activity was performed.  A number of different pre-defined locations are provided to be selected. (Nov-02-2011)

The P/I system has been enhanced to support the 150 character Customer Company Names that are provided by the Accounts Receivable system.  Where applicable, the full 150 character name is now displayed. (Nov-02-2011)

The P/I system has been enhanced to now provide 8 digit Invoice Numbers. (Nov-02-2011)

Several new fields have been added to the WIP, (Work-in-Progress), record definition.  As a result, the layout of fields used for the "Interface from Spreadsheet" has been revised.  For users that load WIP charges you must re-configure the layout of your input spreadsheets.  Briefly, the following columns have been inserted or shifted:

Refer to the documentation below for the General WIP Entry operation for specific layout information. (Nov-02-2011)

With the P/I system, specific types of Invoices may be emailed.  The email address fields have been increased in size from 40 to 120 characters.  The email addresses are obtained either from the Customer's Properties record, from the Multiple Client Project Bill-To record, or as passed within On-Demand Billing parameters.  All P/I applications providing the option to have reports or invoices emailed will be revised accordingly.  - or from Task Code has been increased in size from 8 to 10 characters.  The Task Code Description field has been increased from 40 to 100 characters.  All routines that require entry or display of the Task Code have been revised accordingly.   (Oct-28-2011)

The P/I Task Code has been increased in size from 8 to 10 characters.  The Task Code Description field has been increased from 40 to 100 characters.  All routines that require entry or display of the Task Code have been revised accordingly.  The Time Sheet Entry and General WIP Charges Entry functions have been revised to display the 100 character description.   (Oct-28-2011)

The P/I Invoice Group and Invoice Section Code fields have been increased in size from 6 to 10 characters in size.  All routines that require entry or display of these codes have been revised accordingly.   (Oct-28-2011)

For the EDI controlled LaSalle Excel Invoices, they will now be emailed using the new interface to MS Office Outlook.  These email messages will be sent as "Plain Text" invoices.  The body of the email message is now loaded from a file named LaSalle_Invoice_EmailMessage.TXT that must be located in the same directory that the Excel invoices are generated in. (As determined by a property in the EDI Control maintenance function).  It now means that users may edit  the message that is emailed.   (Oct-05-2011)

For the EDI controlled Wilmington Trust Excel Invoices, they will now be emailed using the new interface to MS Office Outlook.  These email messages will be sent as "Plain Text" invoices.  The body of the email message is now loaded from a file named WTrust_Invoice_EmailMessage.TXT that must be located in the same directory that the Excel invoices are generated in. (As determined by a property in the EDI Control maintenance function).  It now means that users may edit  the message that is emailed.   (Oct-05-2011)

For the EDI controlled Excel Invoices, they will now be emailed using the new interface to MS Office Outlook.  These email messages will be sent as "Plain Text" invoices.  The body of the email message is now loaded from a file named Excel_Invoice_EmailMessage.TXT that must be located in the same directory that the Excel invoices are generated in. (As determined by a property in the EDI Control maintenance function).  It now means that users may edit  the message that is emailed.   (Oct-05-2011)

For the EDI controlled PDF Invoices, they will now be emailed using the new interface to MS Office Outlook.  These email messages will be sent as "Plain Text" invoices.   (Sept-21-2011)

The Employee Daily Activity Report has been enhanced as follows:

As well, the generic P/I WIP and P/I Projects and A/R Customer Selection Filters screens are presented to allow for the entry of additional filters. (Aug-10-2011)

The Budgeting process has been partially overhauled.  It is now possible to define multiple types of budgets for a given Project.  You may now also budget for Employee WIP activity or Task WIP activity, independent of the Projects being recorded to.  Some of the new features to note:

Budgets may be entered manually and imported or exported from/to a spreadsheet. (July-25-2011)

The Time Sheet Exception Report has been enhanced as follows:

As well, the generic P/I WIP and P/I Projects and A/R Customer Selection Filters screens are presented to allow for the entry of additional filters. (July-14-2011)

The Time Sheet Entry function has been enhanced to provide support for Employee assigned Projects.  When entering a time sheet for a particular Employee, if Projects have been assigned to that employee, then a drop-down list will be presented with ONLY those projects that have been assigned.  Once the Project is chosen, if Tasks have been assigned too, a drop-down list will be presented with those tasks that have been assigned. (July-12-2011)

The ability to assign Projects to an Employee has been introduced.  A new Codes Maintenance function offers the ability to assign Projects to Employees.  When a Project is assigned, then in the  time sheet entry operation, only those Projects may be recorded.  In addition to assigning Projects, Tasks can also be assigned to those Projects that are assigned to a given Employee.  Both an Import and an Export function are provided for loading and outputting valid combinations or Employees/Projects and Tasks to spreadsheet. (July-10-2011)

The Invoice Processing Grid screen routines have been revised so that the A/R Distribution file is opened only during the Invoice Generation and the Invoice De-Generation functions.  The A/R Distribution file in various A/R related applications is opened Exclusively. Now, in the P/I Invoicing system, it is only opened when actually being used. (July-04-2011)

A problem has been discovered associated to the function that archives Invoice History records to their applicable Archive file.  When a PI Invoice or Credit is archived, the given  record, along with it's Invoice Line Items records and any Recap Detail records, are copied to the archive files.   For a Credit, there is no associated Recap records.  A situation arose where Recap records that actually belonged to a valid Invoice were archived because a Credit document was on file with the same document # as that Invoice.  When that Credit was archived, the invoice's Recap records were archived.  The problem has been fixed.  The system will no longer attempt to archive Recap records when a Credit is being archived. (June-30-2011)

When Invoices are de-Generated, the option exists to have a Credit document automatically created. (In the case where the Invoices had already been interfaced to Accounts Receivable).  When creating Credit Notes, the document # that is assigned is determined from the A/R Control preferences.  The function has been enhanced that when Credits are generated, a test is performed to make sure the Credit document # would not exceed 999999.  If the number of invoices to be de-generated is greater than difference between 999999 and the Next # to Assign, then the De-Generation function is aborted and a message is displayed.   (June-30-2011)

This report has been totally revised.  The analysis is generated showing total WIP activity that was recorded by employees for work performed on projects associated to other Locations or Departments.  Totals are now tallied for all combinations of Employee, Location, Department and Project.  Output is displayed to a Series 5 grid screen, from which different variations of combinations of Employee, Location Department and Project may be displayed.  Also, totals may either be output to a report, or to a spreadsheet. (June-03-2011)

With the new option to record Disbursements directly into P/I, you still have the possibility, desire and need, to enter the associated supplier Invoices into the A/P system.   The A/P transaction entry function has been enhanced to now allow the operator to view any Disbursements, for the given Vendor, that had been previously entered into the P/I system.  If selected, the particulars about the Voucher being added will be recorded into the P/I's Disbursement.  Alternatively, Disbursements not already found in the P/I system may still be loaded. (May-11-2011)

Up to this point, disbursements to be charged to a Project were loaded into the P/I system when supplier Invoices were entered into the Accounts Payable system. When expenses were distributed to their applicable G/L distributions, a P/I Project could also be specified.  When the Invoice was posted to Payables, the Disbursements were recorded to the specified Project.

A new function has been introduced that provides for the entry of Disbursements directly into the P/I system.  Also, you may now enter three types of disbursements; These include Regular Purchases, Sub-Contracted Services and Inventory Items.  The Project Inquiry and Billing Selection functions have been enhanced to support these new types.  Disbursement expenses may be  entered directly, or imported from Excel worksheets, CSV or tab-delimited files. (May-06-2011)

The operation of posting General WIP charges and/r Time Sheets may improve dramatically depending on the type of operating system that it is being executed on.  When the Work-in-Progress records are written, the Time-of-Day is used as part of the key to make sure those transactions having the same Project, Date, Employee and Task codes have a unique key.  In any operating systems that can only report the Time-of-Day to the the nearest second, or 1/10th of second, that would mean that only 1 or 10 such WIP records could be written per second.  A change was made that now would allow up to 1,000 such WIP records to be written per second, (if the network and machine could go that fast). (Apr-21-2011)

The Time Sheet Entry functions have been enhanced to provide for the entry of employee time for a particular Project and Task, daily over the period of a week.  When creating a new Time Entry Batch, you may choose to create a batch that has it's time sheet activity entered either as Individual WIP Items, or as Daily Items for a Week by Project/Task.   The new option, entering charges by the week, presents an entry screen to enter the Project, the Task, and Hours for the 7 days of the week starting from a Monday. (Apr-21-2011)

You may now attach a variety of different documents to Master Project records.  Up to 15 separate documents may be selected, and attached and viewed from the Project Codes Maintenance functions.  The different types of documents support  are as follows:

(Apr-14-2011)

A new EDI invoicing format has been introduced to the P/I system.  Invoice may now be generated as CSV text files that are ready to be sent to Ariba for processing.  A new EDI specification type has been introduced called ARIBA CSV Text Invoices.   If using this method, an empty CSV Invoice file must be created in the designated output folder that contains the contractual and format information for Ariba.   (Apr-10-2011)

From the Project Maintenance routine, the existing function to Import Project data from spreadsheet has been enhanced.  When loading data, there were two Processing Directives, %RADD% and %DELE%, which would either Re-Add Projects, or just Delete those Project Codes that followed.  A new directive has been introduced, %UPDT%,  that provides for the option to Update a particular field in existing  Project records.  The field to be updated is identified by the code provided in column 2 of the row the %UPDT% directive is in.   In column 2, enter PARTNER, LEADER, INV-LAYOUT, KEYWORD-1, KEYWORD-2, KEYWORD-3 or KEYWORD-4 to indicate which field is to be updated.  In the rows that follow, in column 1 specify the Project Code, and in column 2, the new value of the indicated field to be replaced. (Feb-01-2011)

The program the generates traditional cXML Invoices has been enhanced.  Now any text string that represents a Customer Name, a Search Name or any other text string will be examined to ensure that it does not contain any of the cXML data record or field terminator characters.  These include  [ / ], [ ' ], [ " ], [ % ], [ < ] and [ > ] characters which will be converted to [ | ], [ ^ ], [ ^ ], [ p ], [ { ] and [ } ] respectively.  (Jan-27-2011)

The program the generates traditional EDI Invoices has been enhanced.  Now any text string that represents a Customer Name, a Search Name or any other text string will be examined to ensure that it does not contain any of the EDI data record or field terminator characters.  These include  [ * ], [ ~ ], [ < ] and [ > ] characters which will be converted to  [ + ], [ ^ ], [ - ] and [ - ] respectively.  (Jan-27-2011)

The program the generates traditional EDI Invoices has been enhanced.  Now any text string that represents a Customer Name, a Search Name or any other text string will be examined to ensure that it does not contain any of the EDI data record or field terminator characters.  These include  [ ~ ], [ | ], [ < ] and [ > ] characters which will be converted to  [ ^ ], [ / ], [ - ] and [ - ] respectively.  (Jan-27-2011)

These two operations have been enhanced to ensure that all characters loaded from the user supplied file are ASCII characters.  In some cases, non-ASCII characters were being loaded into characters strings that were eventually passed on in files that were being submitted as EDI Invoices that caused rejection.  Now any character that is not a valid ASCII character is converted to the <?> character..  (Jan-27-2011)

General WIP Entry is used to enter Work-in-Progress charges that are not directly associated to an employee's time sheet.  When the User Charges Interface is executed, it loads it's charges, and optional Recap Detail records, into a General WIP Transaction batch.  A General WIP transactions has associated to it a Recap Detail record only if a WIP/RECAP Record ID Number had been specified.

When a General WIP Transaction Batch was being posted, if a WIP/RECAP Record ID was specifed, it assumed that a valid Recap Record had also been defined.  If there actually was not Recap Detail record, the transaction still had been posted.   The Posting function has been enhanced so that now, if the General WIP Transaction had a non-zero WIP/RECAP Record ID Number, but no associated Recap Detail record was on file, that transaction will now be flagged, and it WILL NOT be posted.   (Nov-22-2010)

Occasionally, a company name, address, or Recap Search-Name or Recap Ordered-By name would have a <~>, <|> or <*> character embedded.  These are used as field and/or line terminators in the EDI file that is generated and transmitted.  As a result, these files would be rejected.  The EDI Invoicing routines have been enhanced to replace these special characters with <^>, </> and <+> characters respectively.   (Nov-17-2010)

To automatically email generated invoices as PDF documents, for those Projects that have been set up to do so, the operator must now click on the Push Button labeled Email/Post Finals found on the Invoice Grid Processing screen.  If the Print/Post Finals push button is selected, those invoices for Projects set up to be automatically emailed are skipped.   (June-02-2010)

The P/I system has been enhanced to offer the ability to generate PDF invoices and have them automatically emailed to the respective customer.  A new EDI Specification Type has been introduced.  To set up to have invoices emailed, the following steps need to be done:

Note that when PDF Invoices are generated, they are really generated as an MS Word document, and from within Word, is saved as a PDF.  This functionality ONLY works if Microsoft Office 2007, or later, is installed on your client computer.   (Mar-18-2010)

A new type of EDI Specifications Control record has been introduced.  It is used to designate that invoices, for the Projects to which it is assigned, will be generated as a PDF document and automatically emailed to the customer.  As an option, a Detail Recap report will also be generated which is also emailed.   (Mar-05-2010)

The EDI Specifications record have been increased in size to accommodate larger fields.  As well, the Historic Statistics table has been broken out and is now kept in a separate file that now holds up to 25 entries, (up from 15).  In the Specifications record, the Data Directory Path has been increased to handle names up to 100 characters in length.   (Feb-25-2010)

The Invoice EDI file that is generated has a summary total line as the last record in the file.  The  total number of Credit Units reported was incorrect.  The problem has been fixed.   (Feb-03-2010)

Those Invoices that had tax amounts allocated to charges were not reporting the tax amounts correctly.  The TXI record was being output, but the amount was not being included.  The problem has been fixed.   (Jan-28-2010)

For the cXML invoices that are generated, the Search Company Name, and the Ordered By fields that are loaded from the Recap records, are appended together into a string as information within the <Description> tag of the <InvoiceDetailItemReference> tag.  The logic has been revised so that any <%> characters will be replaced with the <p> character, and any <'> or <"> characters will be removed.   (Jan-07-2010)

The option to export data to spreadsheet has been enhanced.  There are up to 8 different types of data that may be output to an Excel spreadsheet.  Each type will now be output to it's own worksheet within the Excel workbook.  (Dec-16-2009)

For those functions that export data to Excel spreadsheets, the following enhancements have been made:

The following applications have been revised accordingly, where applicable (Dec-15-2009) :

This was provided as a function from the the Select Project for Billing application.  It now may be accessed with a menu item from the P/I menu's Operations  drop -down menu. (Nov-10-2009)

Context sensitive Help has been introduced to the screens offered in the Invoice History Inquiry functions. (Nov-10-2009)

Credits may be entered and applied against a selected Historic Invoice.  A number of cosmetic enhancements have been made to the screens used to enter the Credits.  In particular the operator may now switch between the Credit Note Entry and the Apply to Invoiced WIP Item tabbed sub-screens at will.   (Nov-10-2009)

Both Historic Invoices and Archived Invoices may be inquired upon.  From this function, the Historic Invoices Register report may be selected.  A number of cosmetic changes have been made to identify which types of historic records are being displayed, and reported on.   (Nov-10-2009)

Context sensitive Help has been introduced to the Project Inquiry function. (Nov-10-2009)

The functions to Apply Credit to WIP items, and to Write-Off a Project's WIP items have been removed from the Project Inquiry application.  Entry of Credits to specific Invoices is provided only as a function within the Historic Invoice Inquire application.  Writing Off a Project is provided as a function within the Select Project for Billing application. (Nov-10-2009)

When a WIP item's Extended Amount is edited, from the P/I Project Inquiry function, the Unit Rate will now be recomputed and displayed accordingly based on the revised Extended Price and the # of Units. (Nov-02-2009)

To correctly handle Credits, the cXML invoicing routine has been revised as follows:

This was needed because there was some inconsistency with how the signs were passed in the Unit Rate and the Quantity fields in the Recap records. (Aug-25-2009)

The LEDES98B Invoice Generation program has been revised to output a variation to the standard as required by Kilpatrick Stockton. (Aug-25-2009)

The LEDES98B Invoice Generation program has been revised to accommodate variations needed for Kilpatrick Stockton.  The EDI Control maintenance screen has been revised offering a new field used to indicated the version of LEDES that is to be used.   Also, a 2nd new field was added to provide the Line Item Expense Code that must be output. (Aug-25-2009)

The Invoice Generation routines have a feature to honor a $ Value Limit of Invoices defined by the Invoice Layout records.  As each WIP charge is assigned to an invoice, if the amount that it contributes to the total value of the invoice exceeds the $ Limit defined by the Layout, it is not included, and the invoice is completed.  If the value of an individual WIP item was greater than the $ Limit, a problem occurred, in that the system would create up to 999,999 Zero Valued invoices.  The system has been revised to ignore any WIP items whose $ value exceeds the Limit defined by the corresponding Invoice Layout. (Aug-05-2009)

For the cXML invoices that are generated, the Search Company Name, and the Ordered By fields that are loaded from the Recap records, are appended together into a string as information within the <Description> tag of the <InvoiceDetailItemReference> tag.  The logic has been revised so that any "<" or ">" characters will be removed.  This was necessary so the XML processor system would not think that a new tag was in the file.   (Aug-05-2009)

The logic for the EDI Invoices has been revised so that if Credit Invoices are generated, the minus sign will now be on the leading edge of the numbers that are reported.   (July-29-2009)

Tax charges will now be reported within the <Tax>....</Tax> tag within the <InvoiceDetailItem>....</InvoiceDetailItem> area of  the cXML file.   (For JP Morgan/Chase, no tax detail information is recorded).   (July-2-2009)

The generated XML code has been revised so that commas in numeric quantity or amount fields will now be removed.   (June-30-2009)

The Invoice Generation program has been revised to consolidate the charges for a given invoice to a single charged item.  This consolidation is done when the LEDES98B output interface file is generated.  (Note that the detail associated to charges are lost). (June-24-2009)

The Invoice Generation program has been revised to consolidate the charges for a given invoice to a single charged item.  This consolidation is done when the Paymentech output interface file is generated.  (Note that the detail associated to charges are lost). (June-24-2009)

The control properties for EDI Invoices generated to be submitted to customers that require Invoices to be submitted using LEDES98B has been enhanced.  A new option has been introduced to have the all invoice detail items consolidated to a single a single charge when the LEDES98B output interface file is generated.  (Note that the P/I Invoices will still show the detail when inquired upon). (June-23-2009)

The control properties for EDI Invoices generated to be submitted to Paymentech has been enhanced.  A new option has been introduced to have the all invoice detail items consolidated to a single a single charge when the Paymentech output interface file is generated.  (Note that the P/I Invoices will still show the detail when inquired upon). (June-23-2009)

The Invoice Generation routines have been enhanced to honor the new $ Value Limit of Invoices property that was introduced to the Invoice Layout records.  As each WIP charge is assigned to an invoice, if the amount that it contributes to the total value of the invoice exceeds the $ Limit defined by the Layout, it is not included, and the invoice is completed.  A new invoice will be started for the remaining charges to be billed for the given Project.   (June-18-2009)

A new property has been introduced to the Invoice Layout record to define a dollar value limit that is allowed for any given invoice that is generated.  The limit will apply to all P/I Projects that use the specified Layout.   If a $ limit is applicable, a check-box is set and the maximum $ value may be set.  The limit field has a maximum value of $ 999,999. (June-18-2009)

For numeric fields in the Ledes EDI output file, for numbers greater than zero, the first character of the field was output as a space.  Leading spaces are not allowed in numeric fields.  The program was revised to set this field to the number ZERO where applicable.  For negative numbers, the first digit will continue to hold the "-" negative sign.  Note that the formal specifications of LEDES98B states that leading ZEROS are acceptable in numeric fields, and leading and trailing blanks in character fields are acceptable. (June-16-2009)

A new function has been introduced to the P/I system.  Under the menu's File drop-down menu, Clear All Credit Card Numbers may be invoked to have all occurrences of credit card numbers cleared.  That is, in those data records where a credit card number is stored,  the number 1111-1111-1111-1111 will be assigned to the card number.  A cutoff date may be entered as a filter to limit the records that have the numbers cleared for those files were dates would be applicable.  This function should be executed on a regular basis to ensure that historic Invoice records have their credit card fields cleared.  Also, if data files are being used in a test environment, all data files should have the credit card fields cleared. (June-01-2009)

When the Purge A/R function is executed in the Accounts Receivable system, if the items being purged originated from the P/I system, the associated P/I Invoice history record is read, and flagged as having had it's Cash Payments applied.  For a specific situation, if the Cash Payment Open Item had an earlier, or the same date as the Invoice and a different Invoice in the PI system had the same Invoice # as the payments Check Number, it was incorrectly being flagged as being paid.  Also, the Payment Date will now be correctly recorded in the P/I Invoice History record.  These problems have been fixed. (April-21-2009)

The generated XML code has been revised so that leading ZEROS in numeric quantity or amount fields will now be removed.   (April-17-2009)

When prepaid P/I Invoices are posted to Accounts Receivable as Sales Transactions, if paid with Credit Cards, the Credit Card number is passed as xxxxxxxxxxxx9999, where 9999 is the last 4 digits.  The Credit Card # as stored in the Sales Transaction is not encrypted. (Mar-11-2009)

A new program has been developed that will process all PI records that contain Credit Card numbers.   It reads the Credit Card Mapping, Invoice and Invoice History  files and encrypts any Credit Card Numbers that have been previously stored.   (Mar-11-2009)

The function to generate charges submitted to Paymentek has been revised to deal with the encryption/decryption of the Credit Card numbers used for generating invoice for designated Projects.  When these invoices are created, the credit card # is encrypted.  The encrypted Credit Card numbers are also moved into the A/R system's Sales transactions.   (Mar-11-2009)

The Credit Card fields in the mapping records are now encrypted.  The encryption is considered a "strong" encryption based on a Vigenere Cipher algorithm using multiple dynamically built conversion tables.  The file is also encrypted using Acucobol's ISAM file encryption, (which is a "soft" encryption).   (Mar-11-2009)

The definition of the Invoice and Historic Invoice records has been revised.  These records had a field that carried an applicable Bill Code associated to the Invoice.  This field has been increased from 20 to 30 characters in size.  A rebuild must be executed on the Invoice file, the Invoice History file, and the Archived Invoice History file.  All related PI functions have been modified to use the 30 character code. (Nov-11-2008)

The input column for the Recap Search Time may now be either blank, a 6 digit number representing hhmmss, or a text string of "hh:mm:ss".  Previously, if the text string was input, it was interpreted as an error, and the remaining Recap fields of the item was not being input. (Nov-3-2008)

A problem has been fixed.  When generating a Recap Report or Spreadsheet for Un-Posted Invoices sorted by Invoices, no detail was not being reported. (Nov-3-2008)

A new Codes Maintenance function has been added to the P/I system.  This maintains records that will map product codes, (that are actually segments of the P/I Task Code), to the Ariba Line Reference code.  When cXML invoices are generated, a segment of the PI Task Code will be used to look up the Line Reference code which is assigned to the argument in the <InvoiceDetailItemReference lineNumber=99999> tag.  Also the segment of the PI Task Code will be inserted in the <ItemID><SupplierPartID>.....</SupplierPartID></ItemID> tag. (Nov-3-2008)

A number of fixes were required for files submitted to Ariba to be accepted (Oct-15-2008)

                   Date: Recap Search Date  Name: Recap Searched Company  User: Recap Searched By  Desc:   Recap Activity Description

Minor changes to the data being generated in the spreadsheet. (Oct-15-2008)

The Find/Replace function was enhanced to provide for the searching and replacing the fields associated to a Project's EDI controlling fields.  These were in a different record, and were not handled correctly.  Now, you can use whatever Search criteria you wish to select projects, and specify to assign, or replace, settings of the EDI control fields.  If originally, the record did not exist, it will now be written.  This makes it easy now to assign EDI options to may projects. (Oct-15-2008)

The generation of XML Invoices has been revised so that each invoice produces a separate XML file. (Oct-7-2008)

The definition of one of the fields of the Recap Detail record has been changed.  What used to be the RECAP-DETAIL-DFS-NUMBER field is now used to hold information passed from the WIP record.  Specifically, it will hold a copy of the WIP's Task Code from the Recap's associated WIP record.  The WIP Task Code is moved into the Recap Detail record when Invoices are generated.  This new field is needed in the Recap Record so to be available when cXML invoices are generated. (Aug-28-2008)

The invoicing function producing cXML invoices for submission to Ariba has been modified.  The <Supplier Secret> tag field is now obtained from the P/I Projects associated EDI Control specification record.  Also, the  <Supplier Part ID> tag will be determined as either the entire, or part of the P/I WIP Task Code, as determined by a setting in the EDI Control specification record. (Aug-28-2008)

The [PER] Invoice Header Data record used to provide information about each Invoice has it's CONTACT-NAME field. This field now contains the Customer Code, and the Invoices "Attention To" individual as a text string "XXXXXX-Attention Name".   It used to just have the Search Date of the charge. (Aug-28-2008)

In the EDI Specification Control record used for ARIBA cXML Invoices, a new field has been added, and an existing fields has expanded in size.  The new field Supplier Secret, defines one of the required tags; and the Remit-To Identifier field was increased from 10 to 30 characters in size.  The EDI Control Maintenance application screen has been revised accordingly. The UPGRAD_UCC3 utility must be executed to have the existing EDI Control records rebuilt to accommodate the new and larger fields. (Aug-28-2008)

The Professional Invoicing system now has On-Line Help.  You can access these help files from the application's screens or menu bars. (Aug-10-2008)