The following features and enhancements are new in versions 9.2, 9.5, and 9.6 of Managing Partner® and Managing Director®.
The Pending Appointments Calendar from prior versions is now named the Pending Appointments of One User Calendar. This calendar view functions the same as before. The name change is to differentiate it from the new Pending Appointments of All Users Calendar.
Appointment Category Tasks displayed on the new Pending Appointments of All Users Calendar are controlled by the new Pending Appointments Calendar Power Query. This new Power Query is opened by a default command button at the top of the Calendar. This command button can be identified as the default because it is surrounded by a dark border. The Pending Appointments Calendar Power Query can be opened either by clicking the command button or by pressing the Enter key while the Calendar is the top window.
The Pending Appointments of All Users Calendar displays all Pending Appointments if the Pending Appointments Calendar Power Query contains no search statement. Users with higher than Staff level access privileges will recognize that the Pending Appointments Calendar Power Query is similar to the Tasks Power Query, but without the ability to filter Tasks by Categories or Dates (the Appointment Calendar format itself handles this).
Both Pending Appointments Calendar views display Appointment Category Tasks that span multiple days. The Pending Appointments of All Users Calendar displays the initials of the User the Appointment is Assigned To. This makes it much more convenient to schedule Appointments that multiple Users will attend. It also helps maintain the availability of Users with greater authority by helping to avoid scheduling Appointments for too many Users at the same time.
The previous requirement that a Task be completed before the Assign Next Task feature could be used has been eliminated. This leaves only the requirement that the Task first be entered. This change makes the current Task Main Feature Set behave more like our plans for future versions.
The List Person to Case File Links view and the Linked Person Sub-Lists appearing on Case File entry type views have been enhanced to display when a Person is a Client with regard to a particular Case File, and when a Person will receive bills submitted for a particular Case File. This information now appears to the right of the Link Type if there is adequate room in the rectangle.
The default Person Types and the Person Suffix pop-up menu items have been expanded to include newer forms of business organization and additional personal and professional name suffixes.
Long term subscribers to the Managing Partner List may remember a posted tip about finding Case Files that had fallen “into the cracks.” This involved setting the Case Files Query or Power Query to list Open Case Files without any Incomplete Tasks, and Closed Case Files with Incomplete Tasks. The Case Files Power Query now includes the Status field and the Incomplete Task? abacus on the Reference Items list so that the List and Count Case Files view can be used to search for “Status [not =] Incomplete Task?” This accomplishes with a single line Power Query search statement what used to require four lines.
Users of prior versions are accustomed to using Copy From Volume command buttons on the Link Document to Task and Enter Document views. These command buttons have been changed to new Open Original command buttons. This change became appropriate because double-clicking an empty document field is now equivalent to selecting Copy From Volume from the Docs pull-down menu. The new command buttons make it very convenient to open original documents without having to pull down the Docs menu. As before, double-clicking a document field rectangle containing a document is equivalent to selecting Work On Original from the Docs menu.
The Income Statement has been redesigned to better accommodate multiple page statements. Firms that have a long list of Business Payment Types will appreciate the labels that appear to indicate when more types of itemized deductions appear on other pages.
The Draft Business Check view is now one page in size. The Sub-Check sub-lists previously at the bottom of the Draft Business Check view has been moved to a new View Business Sub-Checks of Main Check view. An iconic sub-form on the Draft Business Check view can be double-clicked to open the new View Business Sub-Checks of Main Check view. This view can be printed if a paper record of Sub-Checks is desired.
Due to consolidation in the banking industry we occasionally find our firms dealing with a new institution that issues new account numbers. The logic underlying the management of multiple bank accounts has been enhanced to better accommodate such a forced change.
A New User Group field has been added to the Users relation. This will be most useful to large firms that wish to restrict User pop-up menus to particular groups, divisions or departments. The names of previously entered User Groups are listed on a pop-up menu for this field on the Enter User view. This makes it easy to reenter previously entered User Groups.
The Prototype pop-up menu on the Enter User view now lists {Any User}. This makes it very easy for the Administrator to correctly enter the special {Any User} record. Selecting {Any User} from the pop-up menu causes the User Name and User Initials fields to default to the correct values. The Administrator then only needs to enter the record.
New Export All Data and Import All Data sequences and dialogs have been added. It is now possible to export all data at one time without typing a single file name, and to import all data without selecting anything but the License file. These sequences are comprised of other sequences that move data from particular Main Feature Sets. These sequences can be run by the Administrator independently providing additional control. All the original Data Transfer and Publish views are still there, so complete control is still available. This is a major enhancement that will make upgrading much easier. This will be especially important when we move to version 10. After upgrading to version 9.2 or later it may never again be necessary to type a file name when upgrading.
A new Record Count view has been added for use by the Administrator. This view lists all relations that can contain data entered by Users and counts the number of records in each relation. This view will be particularly useful when upgrading.
In prior versions date fields exported or published from views on the Data Transfer Sub-Menu were formatted with a two digit year. Although this worked reliably when upgrading to new versions of Managing Partner or Managing Director, transferring data to other applications could cause problems. This is because the other applications might misinterpret the century. To eliminate this potential problem the format of all dates on all Data Transfer and Publish views have been changed so that a four digit year is exported. The date format now always appears as “Oct 28, 1998,” or as “Oct 28, 1998 9:07 PM” if the time should be included.
New fields in the Bank Account relations store the date a Bank Account was last reconciled and the Ending Balance from the bank statement used for that reconciliation. These fields are updated automatically when Bank Accounts are successfully reconciled. The Statement Ending Balance fields on the Reconcile Bank Account views default to the value from the corresponding Bank Account record if no transaction records from that Bank Account have been marked as appearing on the bank statement since the last successful reconciliation. This enables Bank Accounts to be easily checked to make sure that they are still balanced. After a Bank Account has been reconciled opening the Reconcile Bank Account view again should automatically verify that the Account is still reconciled with the last bank statement.
Enter Bank Account views now display the Starting Date and Starting Balance of the currently Active Starting Data record for the Bank Account. New command buttons on the Enter Bank Account views perform Enter or Replace and then auto-open the corresponding Enter Bank Account Starting Data view if no Active Starting Data record exists for the Bank Account. Also, a new Bank Account Starting Data record now may be created when a Bank Account is successfully reconciled even when all Account transactions have appeared on the bank statement.
The Pending Appointments of One User Calendar now defaults to the Current User.
The Date & Time Calculators incorporated into the Task Entry Views now handle calculations measured from one of the last days of a month more intelligently. For example, March 31, 2001 plus 1 Month is April 30, 2001.
Data on report type views, such as the Income Statement and Bank Account Balances views, now can be copied to the Clipboard or exported as an ASCII file.
New diagnostic views list Payments with orphaned Payment Type Codes.
The Person to Case File Links Query and Power Query now include the Comment fields from the Linked Case File and Linked Person records.
The Enter License view now includes intelligent command buttons. One button displays a previously entered License record if it is not already displayed, and alternately Static Enters a License record if all mandatory fields are defined. The second button imports a License file if one has not been imported, or deletes and then imports a License file if one was already entered. Also, the Tour Guide now instructs and assists demonstration users to import a License file.
The validation against exceeding the number of licensed Users only counts User records that are not Former Users or the {Any User}. This avoids the need to delete User records when someone leaves the firm.
The File Number fields on the View Case File view now can be selected with the mouse for copying, but are not editable. The background color of the field rectangles is now white indicating that the fields can be selected. The ability to copy File Number field values is particularly convenient for pasting into Queries. A new iconic sub-list on the View Case File view opens the Enter Case File view displaying the same Case File record for editing.
The Task Type, Date, and File Number fields on the Work on Task and Reschedule Appointment views now can be selected with the mouse for copying, but are not editable. The background color of the field rectangles is now white indicating that the fields can be selected. New iconic sub-lists open the View Case File view displaying the Case File linked to the Task.
A new Verify Typefaces view assists in verifying that all required typefaces have been installed on all workstations.
The display of Task Status has been enhanced with color coding. Pending or Overdue Status appears in blue text, and Urgent Status appears in red text. This is particularly helpful when using the Tasks Assigned to Current User Calendar.
Many new menu command keys and function keys have been added. This enables many commands to be selected from the keyboard.
A new Window pull-down menu lists open windows in alphabetical order. Selecting the name of a window from this menu brings that window to the front and makes it active.
New List Check Stubs views have been added that list checks with more detail than the List Check views.
The demonstration data have been updated and expanded to further assist new users.
The validations against conflicting Appointments have been enhanced to produce dramatic speed improvements when entering and editing Appointments. This new performance enables the Task Management Main Feature Set to easily handle large numbers of Pending Appointments for many simultaneous Users and Resources.